Many Amazon employees resign as company pushes to end remote work, seeks more team collaboration

In February this year, Amazon had asked its employees to come to office atleast three days a week. The company implemented the rule in May in hopes of boosting business. However, employees reportedly were unhappy with the sudden change. Nearly 2,000 employees also staged a protest against the return to office mandate in May this year. A couple of days back, it was reported that employees were left furious after they received a mail from the company stating that they are not meeting the company's expectation of joining their colleagues in the office at least three days a week, even though their assigned building is ready'.

And now, the company has gone a step further and is also asking some employees to relocate to 'central hubs' to be with their teams, a report by CNBC reveals. The employees, however, are choosing to quit their jobs instead of complying with the new mandate.

Why are Amazon employees quitting?

CNBC reports that several employees spoke to the publication about the new mandate and some are willing to quit their jobs instead of complying with the new mandate. An employee based out of Texas revealed that his team was assured that nothing would change for them after the return to office mandate was issued by the company. He was hired in a remote role. However, in July, his team was asked to choose to work from either Seattle, New York, Austin, Texas, Arlington or Virginia. As a result, the employee left his job after securing another position at a company. The reason behind the same is that the employee is concerted about job security, cost of living in another city, and no guarantee of a salary increase.

The report added that Amazon is asking remote workers to move to a central hub by the first half of 2024.

Amazon spokesperson's statement

Amazon spokesperson Rob Munoz told CNBC that the relocation mandate 'affects a small percentage of the company’s workforce'. He added that the hub locations (that employees are being asked to move to) vary from team to team and every team will decide which locations will be their hubs. The company, as per the spokesperson, also provides relocation benefits to employees who are being asked to move.

"It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, so we decided that the best thing to do was to communicate directly with teams and individuals who are affected to ensure they’re getting accurate information that’s relevant to them. If an individual feels like they don’t have the information they need, we encourage them to talk with their HR business partner or their manager," he said.

When Andy Jassy addressed employees

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had addressed employees and announced the return to office mandate in a blog post in February this year.

His post read, "Because the pandemic lasted as long as it did, we were able to observe various models—some teams working exclusively from home, some in the office full-time together, and many flavors of hybrid—over a meaningful period of time. S-team listened to employees, watched how our teams performed, talked to leaders at other companies, and got together on several occasions to discuss if and how we should adjust our approach.

"The guiding principle in these conversations was to prioritize what would best enable us to make customers’ lives better and easier every day, and relentlessly invent to do so. Our respective views of what we thought was optimal evolved as the pandemic wore on and then eased."