Amazon workers want Andy Jassy to cancel return-to-office plan

Furious Amazon workers are reportedly demanding that their embattled boss Andy Jassy rethink a new return-to-office plan that is set to take effect on May 1.

Jassy announced last week that Amazon’s corporate staffers would be required to be at their desks at least three days per week — with limited exceptions. The Amazon CEO argued the mandate would foster better collaboration and help the company “deliver for customers and the business.”

Shortly after Jassy’s announcement, employees started a “Remote Advocacy” channel on Amazon’s internal Slack messaging system to tout the merits of remote work and push back on the office mandate. More than 14,000 employees had joined the group as of Tuesday, according to Insider.

The “Remote Advocacy” channel’s members have also drafted a petition urging Jassy and a group of top executives, known as the S-team, to drop their plans entirely.

“We, the undersigned, call for Amazon to protect its role and status as a global retail and tech leader by immediately cancelling the RTO policy and issuing a new policy that allows employees to work remotely or more flexibly, if they choose to do so, as their team and job role permits,” a draft of the petition reportedly says.

The early version of the petition also includes a pledge that employees will make a “data case against RTO” and cites the benefits of remote work, including increased worker productivity and better work-life balance.

The employees said three-days-a-week mandate would run contrary to Amazon’s stances on issues such as affordable housing, diversity and climate change.

They also accused Jassy of contradicting his past statements on how Amazon would handle remote work – including a quote last year in which he said there was “no one-size-fits-all approach for how every team works best.”

“Many employees trusted these statements and planned for a life where their employer wouldn’t force them to return to the office,” the petition says, according to CNBC. “The RTO mandate shattered their trust in Amazon’s leaders.”

Jassy’s announcement marked a major policy shift for the Seattle-based e-retail giant, which had previously allowed its managers to determine how often their team members needed to work on site. Some staffers had remained fully remote under the old approach.

Some employees used the Slack channel to vent their frustration over Jassy’s move.

“This is going to be absolute chaos and make everyone’s work distracted for probably a quarter, maybe longer,” one Amazon worker wrote. “It’s hard to be productive with so much uncertainty injected into our lives.”

Others in the channel grumbled that the policy was short on details and would be disproportionately taxing on employees who had moved further away from the office during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Post has reached out to Amazon for comment.

The outrage comes at a difficult time for Amazon, which recently ordered 18,000 layoffs as part of a cost-cutting push in response to sagging revenue. Jassy recently warned employees during an internal meeting that it would take “many months” for the company to rebound.

Amazon isn’t the only firm facing employee pushback over its return-to-office plan.

A similar petition drive has been organized at Disney, where CEO Bob Iger recently ordered employees to work in the office at least four days per week.