Back to the office at Amazon

On Monday, Amazon became the first of the tech titans to require all workers to return to the office five days a week. The move was a bit of a surprise to me. I had forecast that most companies, particularly those in tech, would settle on a hybrid work policy, requiring employees in the office three days a week and then allowing remote work for the other two.

Last year, Amazon moved to mandate workers to be on site three days a week. Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO, said that the advantages of being on site had only become clearer since then.

One worry about requiring workers back five days a week is that some top talent will quit and go to competitors with more flexible working requirements. A few other big organisations, like JPMorgan, Boeing and UPS, already require some departments to be in the office full-time. It will be interesting to see if any of the other big tech companies follow Amazon.