Amazon is reportedly making employees relocate for return-to-office

Some Amazon employees will be forced to relocate to fulfill a company policy requiring three days per week of in-office work, according to sources speaking with Bloomberg. Those affected will include workers hired for remote positions and those who moved during peak pandemic days.

Remote Amazon workers will have to report to “main hub” offices, including company headquarters in Seattle, New York and San Francisco (and possibly other locations), as The Wall Street Journal reported. However, decisions on who has to relocate, and where, will be decided on a departmental basis. The company reportedly hasn’t yet established how many employees will have to uproot themselves.

An Amazon representative told Bloomberg today that it observes “more energy, collaboration, and connections happening” since implementing the in-office mandate, which CEO Andy Jassy announced in February. Some of the company’s workforce viewed the policy as adding insult to injury, as it arrived around the same time as widespread layoffs starting in late 2022 that affected around 27,000 employees. Hundreds of workers staged a walkout in May, protesting the return-to-office policy and the company’s climate shortcomings.

“We continue to look at the best ways to bring more teams together in the same locations, and we’ll communicate directly with employees as we make decisions that affect them,” an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg.

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