Microsoft VP Scott Guthrie tells staff there won’t be an Amazon-style return to the office — unless productivity drops

The software and cloud computing giant is currently allowing employees to work remotely, with many new hires being promised the flexibility to work from home for at least half the week. But that’s not written in stone.

According to two anonymous sources they spoke to Business Insiderexecutive vice president Scott Guthrie recently told staff at his Microsoft cloud and artificial intelligence group, which includes Azure, that a policy change isn’t currently on the cards — as long as workers remain productive.

wealth has reached out to Microsoft for comment on what specific productivity measure is being used, how it will be assessed, and whether the process will be made transparent to employees.

Although no statement was provided by press time, Microsoft said Business Insider that the company’s work policies have not changed.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s bombshell decree has rattled tech workers in the sector, many of whom fear a return to the hours wasted in traffic during the long daily commute.

That’s assuming a suitable branch is even within driving distance for those who joined with the understanding that they would be working remotely permanently.

As a result, a number of employees are now “jumping” for a new job, with some experts predicting that Jassy and other executives like him will eventually be forced to back down amid widespread worker unrest.

White collar and blue collar tensions

Experts have suggested that RTO mandates could actually be an excuse to gracefully downsize without reverting to severance by simply motivating employees to quit. According to a recent survey by the anonymous job review site Blind, about 73 percent of verified Amazon professionals said they were considering quitting.

The RTO issue is controversial and Jassy is by no means the most draconian CEO when it comes to the issue.

Elon Musk may well be the most outspoken executive opposed to remote and hybrid working, having already ended the practice in June 2022 at Tesla. He suggested that white-collar workers who want continuous flexibility and remote and hybrid work offers are actually just lazy. “They should pretend to work elsewhere,” he said in defense of his approach.

However, the entrepreneur is only asking for the same presence for his knowledge workers as his shop floor workers, who he asked to show up in the middle of the first wave of the pandemic. He branded what he called the “laptop class” as restless elites who give off “real Marie Antoinette vibes” compared to the work ethic of their blue-collar brethren who manage assembly lines.

Musk may have had a point when it came to fueling resentment of different treatment within the workforce.

US dock workers along the East Coast and Gulf Coast are now going on strike for the first time since 1977, in a move that could cost the US economy up to $4.5 billion every day. The striking port workers are demanding fair compensation from port operators for their efforts over the past six years, including the pandemic.

“When (the ports) made the most money was during COVID when my people had to go to work on those wharves every day when everyone was staying home to go to work. Not my people, they died there with the virus,” said ILA union president Harold Daggett. “No one stayed at home. Well, I want to be compensated for that.”

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