Amazon says workers will return to the office five days a week in 2025

SEATTLE, Wash. — Starting next year, Amazon says its employees will be required to work in the office five days a week.

CEO Andy Jassy sent out a message to employees about the change Monday.

Like many other companies, Amazon’s corporate employees worked remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Amazon created a policy that allowed leaders to determine how their teams worked.

Then, last year, the tech giant asked all employees to come back to the office three days per week.

At the time, at least 30,000 Amazon employees did not agree with the return-to-work policy, according to a signed petition against it. That letter was rejected by Amazon’s head of human resources, according to a leaked memo from Insider.

In his note on Monday, Jassy said the company has seen that it is easier for employees to “learn, model, practice and strengthen” Amazon’s culture and brainstorm when they’re together in person.

“If anything, the last 15 months we’ve been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits,” Jassy wrote.

KIRO 7 reached out to the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) about the announcement.

“Downtown’s largest employer bringing people back more frequently is a home run for downtown,” said DSA President & CEO Jon Scholes.

“Amazon’s decision reinforces the value of in-person work to the success of companies and organizations.”

The tech company acknowledged that many of its employees have tailored their personal lives around the ability to work remotely.

Amazon says the policy will not go into effect until January 2, 2025, so that workers can adjust.

“Our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances,” Jassy wrote.

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