Amazon CEO tells remote workers: ‘It’s not going to work out’

(NewsNation) — Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has started losing patience over employees who disagree with the company’s mandate that they work in the office three days a week, a new report from Insider says.

In a recording of a “fishbowl” meeting earlier this month obtained by Insider, Jassy told employees if they didn’t like the policy, they could leave the company.

“It’s past the time to disagree and commit,” he said, according to Insider. “And if you can’t disagree and commit, I also understand that, but it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon because we are going back to the office at least three days a week, and it’s not right for all of our teammates to be in three days a week and for people to refuse to do so.”

Previous reporting by the news outlet shows Amazon instituted a policy last month that any employee not in compliance with the return to office policy will be forced into a “voluntary resignation.” Another report showed that employees identified by their badge swipes as not following the policy were scolded in emails — with some workers receiving the messages in error.

When asked by an employee about whether Jassy had any data supporting the decision to return back to the office, Jassy sidestepped it, Insider reports, and called it a “judgment” call.

During the fishbowl meeting, though, Jassy said he spoke to dozens of CEOS of other companies about remote work, and “virtually all of them” preferred to bring employees back in person.

Employees have expressed unhappiness with Amazon’s policy that employees go into the office three times a week since it was first announced earlier this year, and went into effect May 1. Corporate Amazon workers protested the policy later that month, as well as the company’s climate impact, through a walkout.

In a note, walkout organizers said Amazon “must return autonomy to its teams, who know their employees and customers best, to make the best decision on remote, in-person, or hybrid work, and to its employees to choose a team which enables them to work the way they work best.”

Amazon, in response to a request for comment by NewsNation, said remote work was never supposed to be the norm, and was a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They added that the company has communicated to employees that its approach to working from home would evolve over time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.