Thought Leadership
Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), has defended the company’s new return-to-the-office (RTO) policy. At an employee meeting in Seattle, he explained that those who do not support this policy can leave the company.
From January, Amazon employees will have to be in the office five days a week. Garman claims that nine out of ten employees he has spoken to are in favor of the new policy. “If there are people who just don’t work well in that environment and don’t want to do that, that’s fine. There are other companies,” Garman said, according to a transcript seen by Reuters. He emphasized that face-to-face collaboration is essential for truly innovative products.
The announcement has caused displeasure among many Amazon employees. They argue that commuting wastes time and that the benefits of office work are not supported by independent data. Previously, Amazon had a three-day rule for working in the office. Some employees who had not adhered to this were considered to have “voluntarily left” and were locked out of the company systems.
Amazon, the world’s second-largest private employer, is taking a tougher line than many of its technology rivals such as Google, Meta and Microsoft, which have two- to three-day office working policies.
Garman was enthusiastic about the change and emphasized that the company’s goals could not be achieved with only three days of office work. In particular, Amazon’s leadership principles, which dictate how the company should operate, are difficult to adhere to under the current policy. “You can’t internalize them by reading them on the website, you really have to experience them day by day,” he said.
