Amazon employees have been told “to get on board” with the company’s return-to-office plan or “to consider employment elsewhere.”
According to a report by Insider, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy made the remarks at an internal event. The comments reflect Amazon’s pressure on office staff in the United States to comply with a policy requiring them to report to a physical office at least three days a week.
As part of his remarks, Jassy reportedly said that while employees are entitled to disagree with the company’s decision to have workers return to the office and even to criticize it, they are not entitled to disregard the policy.
He predicted that for those who could not accept the policy, their prospects for remaining at Amazon appeared “grim.”
Insider reported that a recording of the session revealed Jassy telling recalcitrant employees, “It’s probably not going to work out for you.”
Some employees, who were hired as “virtual” employees during the pandemic-era, reportedly asked Jassy to produce internal data justifying the policy, which the CEO acknowledged doesn’t exist, telling CNN the return to office policy is a “judgment” call based on past data.