Amazon recently added a new requirement to its promotions policy: Be in the office no less than three times a week.
Amazon told its managers last month that employees slated for promotions must comply with the company’s return-to-office policy, which requires them to be in the office at least three times a week. If not, they will need a VP approval, or their promotions will get blocked, an internal announcement, email, and Slack messages seen by Insider show.
“Managers own the promotion process, which means it is their responsibility to support your growth through regular conversations and stretch assignments, and to complete all required inputs for a promotion,” said the internal announcement about promotions. “If your role is expected to work from the office 3+ days a week and you are not in compliance, your manager will be made aware and VP approval will be required.”
In a separate email and Slack message sent to a manager about an individual employee’s attendance record, seen by Insider, Amazon blocked the employee’s proposed promotion because the person failed to meet the office attendance requirements.
“If you do not plan to promote the builder, ‘Reject’ the Approval and update the builder’s Proposed Promotion Quarter (PPQ),” the separate email said. Amazon uses the term “builder” to refer to engineering employees, a reference to a Jeff Bezos philosophy about how builders are the people who execute on dreamers’ ideas.
In an email to Insider, Amazon’s spokesperson said compliance with the company’s return-to-office policy was one of the many factors it considers before an employee is promoted.
“Promotions are one of the many ways we support employees’ growth and development, and there are a variety of factors we consider when determining an employee’s readiness for the next level. Like any company, we expect employees who are being considered for promotion to be in compliance with company guidelines and policies,” the spokesperson said.
This is the latest tweak to Amazon’s unusually contentious return-to-office process.
Last month, Amazon told managers that they now have discretion to fire employees who refuse to comply with the return-to-office policy, as Insider previously reported. Those targeted for a promotion are instructed to first have a conversation with their managers to discuss their non-compliance. Once the promotion is blocked, managers can terminate the employee if they continue to not meet their office attendance requirements.
Amazon employees have been unsuccessfully protesting the RTO mandate since February, when it was first announced. The mandate required corporate employees to come into the office at least three times a week starting in May.
More than 30,000 employees signed an internal petition and many others walked out earlier this year in opposition to it. Those employees have argued that some of them were hired as fully remote workers during the pandemic and that they see the mandate as a shift from the previous guidelines that allowed individual managers to determine how their teams worked.
In July, the company doubled down by telling remote employees to relocate near office “hubs” where most of their team members were. Those who refused to relocate or find another team that accommodated their needs were told to take a “voluntary resignation” package. By September, Amazon was sharing individual attendance records on employees, a shift from the previous policy of tracking only anonymized data. And then, Amazon told managers they were allowed to fire employees who didn’t comply.
The updated promotion guidelines also state two key factors of Amazon’s promotion philosophy. They are:
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An employee’s role must have the capacity to be performed at the next level. You’ll often see this referred to as the scope of role. If the role cannot grow with the employee (i.e., the role does not exist at the next level), then a promotion cannot occur in that role.
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An employee must be consistently demonstrating next-level performance. This is to set up the employee for success at the next level because they’ve already proven they can do the work.
“Like most processes at Amazon, the promotion process is peculiar, and the journey to promotion is unique to each employee,” the note said.
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