Amazon employees advocate for repeal of 5-day RTO mandate in anonymous poll

Some Amazon workers refuse to “agree and commit,” as one of the company’s famous leadership principles requires of those who disagree with a decision.

Instead, hundreds of employees at the online retail giant are complaining that CEO Andy Jassy’s five-day-a-week return-to-the-office mandate, announced last week, will have a negative impact on their lives – and productivity at workplace – and how they hope the company will be negatively impacted. will reverse course.

The feedback comes from an anonymous survey created by Amazon employees that was viewed by wealth Tuesday. Corporate employees shared it widely via the messaging app Slack, including in a “remote advocacy” Slack channel with more than 30,000 members that a former employee created when Amazon first announced a mandate to three days back to the office last year.

Consequently, employees who are in favor of remote or hybrid work would have been more likely to respond to the survey and thus skew the results.

As of the afternoon of September 24, the average satisfaction rating with the RTO mandate among survey respondents was 1.4 on a scale of 5 (with 1 meaning “very dissatisfied” and 5 representing “very satisfied”). The survey’s creators said in an introduction to their questionnaire that they plan to collate and share the results via email with Jassy and other company executives “to give them a clear view of the impact of this policy on employees, including identified challenges and solutions proposed. .”

“We are seeking honest and constructive feedback on the recent decision to request a 5-day return to office hours,” the survey’s introduction reads.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment.

Amazon has been using a hybrid work structure for the past 15 months before Jassy’s recent bombshell announcement that most corporate employees would have to work a full five-day week from Amazon’s local office starting in January.

“Looking back over the past five years, we continue to believe the benefits of being in the office together are significant,” Jassy wrote last week. “We’ve explained these benefits before, but in summary, we’ve noticed that it’s easier for our colleagues to learn, model, practice and reinforce our culture; another.”

Jassy’s explanation of the new mandate and a second announcing a planned downsizing of middle management were seen as tacit acknowledgments of a disintegrating corporate culture inside Amazon in recent years, as wealth detailed recently.

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wealth spoke and texted several dozen Amazon employees since last week’s announcement, most opposed Jassy’s decision for reasons such as reduced productivity during office days and management’s lack of confidence in employees and senior managers, based on the change in the RTO policy. They also complained about the impact the policy will have on single parents and the lack of data to explain the decision at a company whose leaders often talk about making data-driven decisions.

Some, however, applauded the move in communicating with wealth and argued that using the length or cost of the commute as an excuse to avoid five days a week at the office would have seemed absurd just a few years ago before the pandemic.

However, most respondents opposed the change or cited the complications the new policy would create.

“I work with people from multiple time zones,” read one reply. “With RTOs, they no longer have the flexibility to easily change hours and collaborate. 3 days had an instant impact here and 5 days will only get worse.”

As for a solution, the employee suggested “more realistic job expectations if we eliminate WFH.”

“Amazon got used to people having 5-10 extra hours a week at work because we weren’t commuting,” the employee said. “RTO means we no longer have additional time to commit to Amazon and employee expectations need to adjust to reflect this. On a similar note, we have to accept that the RTO imposes strict limits on meeting times. I can’t get on an 8am meeting with the people from HQ2 or the East Coast. When I was at home, I could go to meetings early or late quite easily, but I can’t do that now.

Several respondents focused on trust, or the mistrust factor, and the fear, echoed by many employees, that the move will drive away top talent who can easily find work elsewhere, while leaving other groups with fewer options.

“The people who leave first are the strong engineers you want to work with,” wrote one. “Others who can’t find new jobs or can’t leave because of visas are unhappy and giving up quietly. Anyone left who really wants to work needs to pick up the game.”

Yet another, echoing others, said he felt the mandate “ignores the challenge of having people come into an office, but all their work and every meeting is done by audio or video conference.”

Most of those who chose “satisfied” or “very satisfied” left no comments outside of their rating, or left a negative comment that signaled that they may have accidentally chosen a positive rating.

The bad news for those unhappy with the new back-to-the-office rule is that when a group of Amazon employees sent a six-page memo to management last year making an argument to reverse the original three-day office mandate, it was dismissed With Jassy and team digging further into their RTO heels, it’s hard to imagine these results producing any significant change.

Are you a current or former Amazon employee with thoughts on this topic or a tip to share? Contact Jason Del Rey at [email protected], [email protected]or through the secure messaging app Signal at 917-655-4267. You can also send him messages on LinkedIn or at @delrey on X.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com