Jassy draws red line on Amazon RTO

The months-long controversy waging at Amazon over its aggressive return-to-office mandate apparently has CEO Andy Jassy losing patience with defending it. In a "fishbowl" meeting earlier this month — Amazon's name for an internal fireside chat — Jassy sidestepped questions asking for the data that drove his decision. Amazon is famously a data-driven organization, and yet, he explained that coming back to the office was a "judgement" call. And if employees didn't like it, they could leave the company, Jassy said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by Insider. "It's past the time to disagree and commit," he said. "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." Amazon has been slowly ramping up the rhetoric and the consequences for those struggling to comply with an order to come into their assigned Amazon office three days a week. As Insider has previously reported, last month the company instituted a policy that said any employee that doesn't comply with this, and has not obtained a rare exception, will be forced into a "voluntary resignation." This came after an internal petition opposing the RTO, signed by roughly 30,000 employees, was rejected by the company. During the Fishbowl conversation, Jassy also argued Amazon didn't use any compelling data when it first allowed remote work during the pandemic. He added that he spoke to 6o to 80 CEOs of other companies about remote work, and "virtually all of them" preferred bringing employees back to the office, he said. And now, using a phrase from Amazon's famous leadership principles, the boss is telling employees that the time to ask for justifications, or complain about it, is over.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has a message for his employees refusing to come back to the office. “It’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon,” Jassy said in a recording obtained by Insider. In an article for Fortune, Eleanor Pringle writes that just six months prior to Jassy mandating a return to office in February 2023, he had “no plans” for forcing workers back to their desks. But, Jassy now claims he has spoken with 60 to 80 other CEOs who said they all want their employees back in the office as well.

According to a recent NY Post article, Amazon CEO "threatened" (my interpretation) employees who refuse to return to the office, saying "it's probably not going to work out for you [at Amazon]." From the article "[d]uring the meeting . . . Jassy declined to share data that motivated his decision to require employees to return to the office." Saying it was "a judgement call." Regardless of your feelings on in-office/remote, I see this as a fundamental problem with this particular ongoing debate. Where are the receipts? Do your kids listen to you (did you listen to your parents) when they told you to do, or not to do, something, and their reason for it was "because I said so"? If you have an associate whose annuals billables have gone up every year they've worked from home, their quality is better than ever, and clients are happy, what evidence are you presenting to them to come back into the office? Every business can choose where and when their employees have to work. And employees can choose to stay or leave. But I think your employees are much more likely to to buy-in if you can point to some kind of metric to support the decision.

When pressed to give some sort of data-based rationale for #amazon 's aggressive #returntooffice mandate, Andy Jassy deflects. Calls it a judgement call, and is now telling employees it is "past" time that they obey, or their jobs are at risk. https://lnkd.in/gyiVtiSe Here's the full scoop on Insider

When pressed to give some sort of data-based rationale for #amazon 's aggressive #returntooffice mandate, Andy Jassy deflects. Calls it a judgement call, and is now telling employees it is "past" time that they obey, or their jobs are at risk. https://lnkd.in/gyiVtiSe Here's the full scoop on Insider

This is about control, pure and simple. We have an executive cohort in this country that seemingly doesn't understand how to manage staff when they are not sitting at a desk in a controlled environment. We are going to be worse for this. "During the Fishbowl conversation, Jassy also argued Amazon didn't use any compelling data when it first allowed remote work during the pandemic. He added that he spoke to 6o to 80 CEOs of other companies about remote work, and "virtually all of them" preferred bringing employees back to the office, he said. " #amazon #rto #control #mangement

The months-long controversy waging at Amazon over its aggressive return-to-office mandate apparently has CEO Andy Jassy losing patience with defending it. In a "fishbowl" meeting earlier this month — Amazon's name for an internal fireside chat — Jassy sidestepped questions asking for the data that drove his decision. Amazon is famously a data-driven organization, and yet, he explained that coming back to the office was a "judgement" call. And if employees didn't like it, they could leave the company, Jassy said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by Insider. "It's past the time to disagree and commit," he said. "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." Amazon has been slowly ramping up the rhetoric and the consequences for those struggling to comply with an order to come into their assigned Amazon office three days a week. As Insider has previously reported, last month the company instituted a policy that said any employee that doesn't comply with this, and has not obtained a rare exception, will be forced into a "voluntary resignation." This came after an internal petition opposing the RTO, signed by roughly 30,000 employees, was rejected by the company. During the Fishbowl conversation, Jassy also argued Amazon didn't use any compelling data when it first allowed remote work during the pandemic. He added that he spoke to 6o to 80 CEOs of other companies about remote work, and "virtually all of them" preferred bringing employees back to the office, he said. And now, using a phrase from Amazon's famous leadership principles, the boss is telling employees that the time to ask for justifications, or complain about it, is over.

Having been immersed in Amazon culture I would say that most require data and convincing arguments for ANYTHING. It can be as small as what filter is better in the coffee machine. They track it all, present it, and expect change. Andy Jassy giving anecdotal evidence goes against the grain of what they taught all Amazonians. Of course there's pushback when you train people to analyze data and then don't give anything to backup what you are saying (especially when all the data says otherwise). Amazon is a great place to poach from I'd think right now. Top talent that just wants to work from home. You spend less on office space and they are happy to put in the hours needed. #winwin

The months-long controversy waging at Amazon over its aggressive return-to-office mandate apparently has CEO Andy Jassy losing patience with defending it. In a "fishbowl" meeting earlier this month — Amazon's name for an internal fireside chat — Jassy sidestepped questions asking for the data that drove his decision. Amazon is famously a data-driven organization, and yet, he explained that coming back to the office was a "judgement" call. And if employees didn't like it, they could leave the company, Jassy said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by Insider. "It's past the time to disagree and commit," he said. "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." Amazon has been slowly ramping up the rhetoric and the consequences for those struggling to comply with an order to come into their assigned Amazon office three days a week. As Insider has previously reported, last month the company instituted a policy that said any employee that doesn't comply with this, and has not obtained a rare exception, will be forced into a "voluntary resignation." This came after an internal petition opposing the RTO, signed by roughly 30,000 employees, was rejected by the company. During the Fishbowl conversation, Jassy also argued Amazon didn't use any compelling data when it first allowed remote work during the pandemic. He added that he spoke to 6o to 80 CEOs of other companies about remote work, and "virtually all of them" preferred bringing employees back to the office, he said. And now, using a phrase from Amazon's famous leadership principles, the boss is telling employees that the time to ask for justifications, or complain about it, is over.

When pressed to give some sort of data-based rationale for #amazon 's aggressive #returntooffice mandate, Andy Jassy deflects. Calls it a judgement call, and is now telling employees it is "past" time that they obey, or their jobs are at risk. https://lnkd.in/gyiVtiSe Here's the full scoop on Insider