Amazon allowing mid-level managers to choose how they organise their team’s mix between remote and office working

In a message addressing Amazon’s one million employees worldwide and released by the company, CEO Andy Jassy announced a return to the office for all employees by January 2022, nearly two years after the Covid-19 crisis began. In the message the CEO says that initially he had wanted a minimum presence for all employees of three days on site per week. However, he notes, “there is no one-size-fits-all approach for how every team works best,” and it is still a stage “of experimenting, learning, and adjusting for a while as we emerge from this pandemic.” Thus, Directors will decide how much remote working will be introduced for their own teams (by January 3, 2022), which will leave the possibility open that some departments may be mostly working remotely, others will be combining both forms of working in a more balanced way, and some teams may also be spending most of their time in the office. Employees eligible for remote working will also continue to have the option of working up to four weeks a year away from the office, once they remain in the country where they are employed. Amazon is now another GAFAM company (as well as Facebook) which has announced January 2022 as the date for their employees to return to the office, and marks a step back from 2020 when several of these companies announced the possibility of 100% remote working.