Amazon orders employees to work from office 5 days a week, internet calls it 'stealth layoff'

Amazon employees will have to report to office five days a week starting January 2, 2025, CEO Andy Jassy said. (Image credit: AFP)

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Monday announced that all employees needed to work from office five days a week starting January 2, 2025, "to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other". For the last 15 months, the tech giant required employees to work from office at least three days a week and Jassy said the move resulted in more effective and seamless collaboration among employees.

"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," he said in his memo to Amazon employees. "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 added that employees who face emergencies at home, those who need a day or two "to finish coding in a more isolated environment", and those whose Remote Work Exception has been approved through their s-team leader would be allowed to work remotely.

The tech giant employs more than 1.5 million people globally in full-time and part-time roles.

The announcement, however, has been called a "stealth layoff" or a "silent layoff" by many on social media because it is likely to push Amazon employees who want to prioritise a better work-life balance into finding new jobs.

"Amazon issues a stealth layoff with a five-day RTO policy (and managers are hit by flattening). I expect they will find this policy counterproductive over time and struggle to attract the best talent (and I say this as someone who likes to go to the office often). Part of me likes the experiment, part of me doesn’t, as I think it will hurt Amazon," commented X user Arun Rao (@rao_hacker_one).

Layoffs! 'The email from Andy Jassy is structured like a classic "shit sandwich" a communication technique where unpleasant news (the "shit") is sandwiched between more positive or neutral statements.' https://t.co/eV1QXvxrns #aws #amazon
Julian Stecklina (@blitzclone) September 16, 2024

Another user Wille Faler (@wfaler) wrote, "Amazon tells staff to return to office five days a week. Meanwhile, they don't have office space to house everyone, or in the US, oh so important parking space. What it means:
They are aiming to stealth layoff their top 10 percent employees (those with options)."

"Amazon is going to continue flattening teams to have fewer managers, and pushing all workers back to the office five days a week. Remote workers with no nearby offices will be forced out. One more big tech layoff without calling it a layoff. I suspect others may follow suit," added Karthik Hariharan (@hkarthik).

He was referring to a point Jassy made in his memo about having fewer managers handle at least 15 percent more employees.

"We’re asking each s-team organisation to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15 percent by the end of Q1 2025. Having fewer managers will remove layers and flatten organizations more than they are today," he wrote. "We will do this thoughtfully, and our PxT team will work closely with our leaders to evolve our organisations to accomplish these goals over the next few months."

Last year, as Amazon tightened the full remote work allowance put in place during the pandemic, employees at its Seattle headquarters staged a protest. The company subsequently fired the organiser of the protest, prompting claims of unfair retaliation, a dispute that has been taken up with labour officials in the US.