It's back to the office full-time for most Amazon employees around the globe, but for some who work for the tech giant and online retailer it's not a welcome change .
“The people on my team are very upset about this,” said CJ Felli, a systems development engineer at Seattle-based Amazon Web Services.
Amazon's corporate employees were mostly working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2023, they were allowed to work a hybrid schedule – two days remotely and three days in the office.
As of January 2nd, that in-office requirement has changed to five days a week.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a letter to employees in September that the company is “going to go back to being in the office like we were before COVID started. “
Employees worried about lack of data
“What we've been told is that it leads to more collaboration between teams and innovation,” Felli said in an interview with CBC News. “But when we ask for data, which is known as Amazon's bread and butter, they are never willing to provide it. “
Felli has been speaking out against this latest return-to-the-office mandate, along with 523 other Amazon workers who wrote a letter to Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman saying “terrified” of them by the “undriven by data. explanation” for a five-day mandate in the office and expressed the benefits of remote work in the letter.
Felli believes that employees are happier and more productive working from home and would like to maintain that flexibility.
“I do most of my focused work at home, and I find that breaking up the monotony helps me personally,” he said.
What employees want
About 18.7 per cent of employed Canadians worked from home most of the time in May 2024, according to Statistics Canada. That's about six percent lower than May 2021, but still more than twice as high as before the pandemic.
A flexible workplace is a big draw for employees, according to a report on workplace trends from the global staffing organization Robert Half.
About 40 percent of the workers surveyed said they would prefer a hybrid job, spending two or three days a week in the office. Employers who were surveyed said they would prefer their teams to be in office four days a week.
“That dance between the employee and the employer suggests that we're still on a journey to perfect that mix,” said David King, senior managing director at Robert Half in Toronto.
The online survey, conducted in June 2024, included responses from 1,800 hiring managers and more than 1,750 employees across the finance and accounting, technology, marketing, legal, administration and customer support and human resources professions in Canada. .
Hybrid work is still a priority for some companies – 37 percent of the managers surveyed offer hybrid jobs specifically to attract skilled talent.
According to a job listing website In fact, the percentage of job postings in Canada referring to remote/hybrid work has remained stable over the past two years.
“Anything that allows your employees to be fully engaged has a benefit. And today it seems to be a hybrid format,” said King.
The conundrum of workplace warfare
Amazon is one of the biggest companies returning to fully personal work, but others are making similar moves.
In September, Dell asked its global sales team to come into the office five days a week to deliver “the best innovation, value and service” to customers. their purchase, according to a statement emailed to CBC News.
AT&T rang in the new year by eliminating hybrid work, requiring employees to work onsite.
Employees at Calgary fintech Gigadat have been back in the office five days a week for several years.
“We were probably one of the first companies to bring people back,” said Cliff Nywening, Gigadat's chief operating officer, explaining that the main reasons are to improve employee mental health and increase productivity.
“Being able to have a spontaneous meeting just adds a lot of value,” he said.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Gigadat's staff of more than 100 people were allowed to work remotely and then hybridly, but the company quickly moved back to being completely in-person.
“Even when you have someone who's maybe working from home, they're disconnected from that conversation when you're around that boardroom,” Nywening said, “that's face-to-face such an important face. “
Although he admits that it was not an easy decision for everyone to come back and question whether they lost some employees as a result.
Challenges ahead for Amazon
But he's glad his company made the move early and can see the challenge ahead for Amazon.
“The longer you've had this hybrid remote experience, the harder it is to go back to, you know, a bit of a normal office work experience,” Nywening said.
Felli, an Amazon employee, still believes the future is hybrid and hopes his employer will make a comeback.
“All of our bread and butter is selling products to people remotely and selling products to people who want to work remotely. So if we can't do remote work, what are we selling?” asked Felli.
“It kind of motivates me to go.”
