Amazon exec tells employees to quit if they don’t want to work 5 days a week in the office: ‘There are other companies around’

One of Amazon’s top executives defended its controversial new five-day-a-week office policy on Thursday, saying those who don’t support it could leave for another company.

Speaking at an all-hands meeting for AWS, the unit’s CEO Matt Garman said nine out of 10 workers he has spoken with support the new policy, which takes effect in January, according to a transcript reviewed by Reuters.

Those unwilling to comply can withdraw, he indicated.

“If there are people who just don’t work well in that environment and don’t want to, that’s fine, there are other companies around,” Garman said.

“When we want to innovate really, really interesting products, I haven’t seen an ability for us to do that when we’re not in person.”

The policy has upset many Amazon employees who say it wastes time commuting and the benefits of working from the office are not supported by independent data.

Amazon has implemented a three-day office policy, but CEO Andy Jassy said last month that the retailer would move to five days to “invent, collaborate and connect.”

Some employees who had previously been non-compliant were told they were “voluntarily resigning” and locked out of the company’s systems.

Amazon, the world’s second-largest private employer after Walmart, has taken a tougher stance on back-to-office than many of its tech peers such as Google, Meta and Microsoft, which have two-three policies -daily in the office.

“I’m actually very excited about this change,” Garman said. “I know not everyone is,” he said, noting that it is very difficult to meet the company’s goals with only the current mandatory three days of office work.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment.

Garman said of the three-day policy, “we didn’t get anything done if we didn’t get to work together and learn from each other.”

In particular, Garman said the company’s leadership principles, which dictate how Amazon should operate, were too difficult to enforce under the current policy.

“You can’t absorb them by reading them on a website, you really have to experience them every day,” he said.

One, “disagree and engage” — understood to mean employees can voice grievances but then have to dive into a project outlined by management — isn’t ideal for remote work, Garman said.

“I don’t know if you guys have tried to disagree through a Chime call,” he said, referring to the company’s internal messaging and calling feature. “It’s very difficult.”