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While the COVID-19 outbreak is somewhat under control, and most employees have returned to the office, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company’s workers are not forced to return to the office, and can continue remote working.
In 2020, the working pattern dramatically changed after the coronavirus forced global companies to shut down their routine operation and lock down employees in the house. Now, many employees are keeping up with their hybrid working patterns and are not obligated to be at the office all the time.
Speaking at the Wednesday Code Conference in Los Angeles, Jassy confirmed that individual managers in the company could determine how often employees should attend the office. He added, “We don’t have a plan to require people to come back.” Amazon executives formerly spoke of returning to an “office-centric culture.”
Of course, Amazon’s CEO left room for potential changes in the future, saying, “We’re going to proceed adaptively as we learn.”
Amazon doesn’t force workers to return to office
The company is now following a hybrid working pattern as many workers have returned to the office and also spend some days working from home. Jassy says the hardware or creative units are more inclined to attend physical offices. Other units like engineering prefer to continue their remote working.
Additionally, the Amazon CEO is concerned about how remote working can affect the company’s inventions. “I do think there are some things that are harder to do remotely,” Jassy said. “I think it’s a little harder to invent remotely.”
Andy Jassy already addressed the COVID-19 impacts on the company’s operations and even hiring. He said that Amazon is now hiring more remote workers from any location instead of recruiting people from areas where it has “critical mass.”
Amazon is not the only company that is not forcing employees to return to the office. However, other companies like Google and Apple made it mandatory for some employees to be present at the office at least three days a week. This has created a sense of dissatisfaction among their workers.