Amazon workers aren’t happy with the company’s controversial RTO scheme – and they’re making their voices heard

Amazon staff are up in arms over a controversial return to office (RTO) mandate imposed by the company earlier this month.

The new working arrangements, unveiled by CEO Andy Jassy in mid-September, will require all staff to return to the office five days per week from January 2025, and will see hotdesking scrapped.

Amazon has employed a hybrid work policy since mid-2023, with staff required to work from office sites a minimum of three days a week.

However, senior leadership at the tech giant said the policy change aims to bolster productivity by returning to pre-COVID working practices, enabling the workforce to “invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other”.

“When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” Jassy wrote in a letter addressed to employees.

“I’ve previously explained these benefits, but in summary, we’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and, teams tend to be better connected to one another.”

Within just weeks of the announcement, staff have signaled their disapproval of the move, according to reports from Fortune.

Hundreds of workers at the tech giant have complained about the decision, suggesting that it will both negatively impact their personal lives and produce little improvements in terms of productivity.

Sentiment on the RTO mandate was revealed in an anonymous survey created by Amazon employees, Fortune reported last week, and has been circulated among staff via Slack channels.

The creators of the anonymous survey noted they plan to share its results with Jassy and other senior executives in a bid to “provide them with clear insight into the impact of this policy on employees”.

“We are seeking honest, constructive feedback on the recent decision to require a 5-day return to the office schedule,” the survey introduction reportedly states.

The survey revealed that the average staff satisfaction rating following the RTO mandate stood at 1.4 out of a possible 5, highlighting the disapproval of affected workers.

Amazon isn’t alone in sparking a worker revolt

The backlash from some Amazon employees marks the latest pushback against controversial RTO policies. Earlier this year, for example, Dell Technologies faced a similar staff revolt after changing its working practices.

This pushback came after the tech giant implemented new rules requiring hybrid workers to track their office attendance to prove they were entering a physical office space 39 days per financial quarter.

Meanwhile, fully remote workers were also warned they would no longer be eligible for promotions or role changes under the move. Nearly half of the firm’s workforce opted to remain fully remote regardless of the policy, however.

The scale of worker unrest in the wake of this dispute was then laid bare in an internal company survey, with leaked documents at the time showing staff satisfaction had plummeted.

The annual ‘Tell Dell’ survey, which is used to track workforce satisfaction, uses an employee ‘net promoter score’ (eNPS) to measure whether a worker would recommend the company as a place to work.

The company-wide eNPS score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of “detractors” from the percentage of “promoters”.

Results of the survey uncovered widespread dissatisfaction, with the latest eNPS score dropping from 62 to 48.

Dell’s RTO mandate wasn’t the only contributing factor to this decrease in satisfaction, however. Sizeable layoffs at the tech giant were also believed to have played a key role in the dip.

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