After almost three years of working from home, Amazon has announced workers around the globe will soon be expected to return to the office.
A note from Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, says the details still need to be worked out, but the goal is for workers to be in the office three days a week starting in May.
“I know that for some employees, adjusting again to a new way of working will take some time. But I’m very optimistic about the positive impact this will have in how we serve and invent on behalf of customers, as well as on the growth and success of our employees,” says Jassy.
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Over the past three years of the pandemic, Jassy says the company has been able to observe different ways of working and has learned a few things that inspired this move.
Jassy states Amazon noticed that it is easier to learn, model, practice, and strengthen culture when employees are in the office together.
“When you’re in-person, people tend to be more engaged, observant, and attuned to what’s happening in the meetings and the cultural clues being communicated.”
He also touts the benefits of “collaborating and inventing” when in office, saying, “The energy and riffing on one another’s ideas happen more freely. In the more productive brainstorm sessions I’ve been a part of over the years, people get excited and blurt out new ideas or improvements to prior proposals, quickly advancing the seed of an idea, and leading to the broader group getting energized and feeling that it’s onto something.”
The statement also explains how teams tend to be better connected to one another when they see each other in person more frequently.
Jassy admits it won’t be a simple task to bring employees back to offices around the world, so teams will be given time to develop a plan.
“We know that it won’t be perfect at first, but the office experience will steadily improve over the coming months (and years) as our real estate and facilities teams smooth out the wrinkles, and ultimately keep evolving how we want our offices to be set up to capture the new ways we want to work,” writes Jassy.
If you had the choice, would you want to go back to the office three days a week? Let us know!
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