- Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the return-to-office mandate was a “judgment” call.
- He compared it to prior decisions not fully driven by data but wildly successful, like launching AWS.
- Jassy said he spoke to roughly 80 CEOs of other companies about remote work.
During an internal fireside chat last week, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was pressed by an employee to share data that supports his return-to-office mandate, which requires most corporate staff to work at assigned Amazon offices three days a week, or leave the company.
But instead of offering data points, Jassy described the company’s controversial return-to-office mandate as a “judgment” call and compared it to other major decisions that weren’t widely supported by data in the past, like the launch of the Amazon Web Services cloud unit, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by Insider.
He also cited Amazon’s move into the third-party marketplace businesses, as well as the decision to ban Powerpoints from company meetings, as examples that lacked “perfect data” but worked out well. AWS’s launch in 2006, for example, raised eyebrows because it was an unproven business model, with no direct ties to Amazon’s core retail segment.
“There was no data when we were deciding to pursue AWS, which was quite different from the rest of our businesses at that time, that we were going to be successful. In fact, most people thought it was nuts internally and externally,” Jassy said during the meeting, internally called a “Fishbowl.”
“Those were judgment decisions by our leadership team,” Jassy continued. “And that is what’s happened here. As a leadership team, we’ve decided that we will be better for customers and for our business being in the office.”
Jassy’s comments are the latest in the months-long tension between Amazon’s employees and leadership team over the company’s aggressive RTO policy.
Last year, Amazon told employees it had no plans to bring them back to the office, but it would “proceed adaptively” to remote work. Then in February, it announced that most employees would have to start working in the office at least three times a week. Soon, some 30,000 employees filed a petition opposing the RTO mandate, which was formally rejected. Last month, Amazon started forcing staff to relocate near central “hub” offices, or otherwise take a “voluntary resignation,” further infuriating some workers, as Insider previously reported. Now, some employees are considering drastic hacks to their lives to comply, ranging from living in vans to weekly flights.
When asked for comment, Amazon declined to provide a statement.
Jassy talked to 80 other CEOs about RTO
During last week’s talk, Jassy shared other thoughts about the RTO decision. He argued that it would be “useful to remember” that the initial move to remote work during the pandemic was also made without any compelling data. Working in the office helps teach and disseminate company culture, he added, and strengthens the quality of meetings.
Amazon’s top leadership looked at “a number of pieces of data” over the past two years regarding remote work, Jassy said. Though he didn’t share any specific data, Jassy noted that the leadership team didn’t like the “actual results of our businesses” through a “significant chunk of time” during that period.
Other company CEOs helped Jassy make up his mind too. Jassy spoke to “60 to 80 CEOs of other companies over the last 18 months,” and “virtually all of them” preferred in-office work, he said.
Many Amazon employees didn’t take Jassy’s comments too fondly. Soon after Jassy’s interview, an internal Slack channel about remote work quickly filled up with dozens of critical employee reactions, according to screenshots obtained by Insider.
Most people were disappointed by Jassy’s failure to provide clear data on in-office work’s benefits. Amazon is notorious for making key decisions based on data, but some employees felt the RTO decision was being made arbitrarily.
“The whole answer sounds like he’s defending making decisions without data,” one of the people wrote in the Slack channel.
Some were upset that Jassy was simply following what other company CEOs were doing. Innovation in the long term, they said, doesn’t come by “doing exactly the same way they do it,” one of the people said.
“It isn’t leaning into innovation and bold leadership. It’s following the herd,” another person said.
One person shared the price chart of Amazon’s stock that more than doubled during the first two years of the pandemic, when most employees worked remotely. Another person blamed Amazon’s leadership team for over-expanding during the pandemic under the belief that the hyper growth would last for a long time.
Regardless, Jassy appears determined to enforce the RTO mandate as it is. During last week’s talk, he encouraged employees to leave the company if they’re unwilling to comply.
“It’s past the time to disagree and commit. And if you can’t disagree and commit, I also understand that, but it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon because we are going back to the office at least three days a week, and it’s not right for all of our teammates to be in three days a week and for people to refuse to do so.”
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