Almost five years after the first-ever remote work experiment began, the world of work remains unable to answer this fundamental question: Can humans consistently work in remote locations from one another and still build robust, forward-thinking, profitable businesses?
For hundreds of years, of course, it wasn’t a question at all. Everyone went somewhere to work every day. But a deadly transmittable disease and the availability of powerful work-from-anywhere technology changed that overnight.
A few months later, the debate began. Fully remote jobs, which allow flexibility and some say boost productivity, vs. hybrid roles, which let workers bounce between flexible days and badly needed in-office collaboration days, vs. full-time in-person positions, which some workers and many CEOs believe fuel stronger organizations.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has wrestled publicly with this question and declared this week that all corporate employees—about 350,000 workers—will be required to work in the office five days a week starting in January. There are some exceptions for extenuating circumstances including sick kids and household emergencies.
Jassy, who posted a message to the company’s website announcing the change, cited a desire to strengthen company culture and teams, among other advantages to bringing workers into the office full-time. Many of those lessons have been reinforced since the company began requiring employees in the office at least three days a week, he wrote.
“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 wrote. “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.”
Amazon joins other large employers that have announced similar, if less sweeping, requirements, including UPS, Boeing, CitiGroup, JPMorgan Chase and Barclays. Google’s former CEO has said he thought remote work left the company flat-footed on AI.
Still, many experts and HR leaders disagree about the wisdom of requiring workers to be in the office, especially full-time. Average occupancy in office buildings sits around 50% in 10 major cities, the Wall Street Journal reported this week.
A survey by Scoop Technologies earlier this year, for example, found the number of return-to-office mandates declining. Research by Stanford University expert Nick Bloom found that hybrid schedules offer the best retention potential. And some Amazon employees have started objecting to Jassy’s latest edict, according to media reports.
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