Amazon’s new home office rules: Each team decides for itself

Amazon is changing its home office policy again. Now team bosses should decide who has to come to the office and when.

Amazon leaves the decision about home office arrangements to the individual teams. The respective managers should determine on how many days their employees should come to the office. “In a company our size, there is no one-size-fits-all solution,” said CEO Andy Jassy in one Email to the employees. There is now an experimentation and learning phase.

In the last few months, Amazon has adjusted the home office regulations several times. Most recently, the group had set the goal that employees should be able to work in the office again from January 2022 – and must also be present there for at least three days. This regulation has led to ambiguities and inquiries, writes Jassy.

Amazon has now dropped this requirement. Instead, for each team, the leader (s) should decide on how many and on which days they are expected to be present in the office.

In general, Amazon expects employees to live close enough to their workplaces to be able to arrive for a meeting within a day. Employees should be allowed to work completely or completely remotely for up to four weeks per year. During the pandemic, people learned that a change of location can be inspiring and relaxing.

The top priority for home office regulations is customer friendliness. The teams should base their decision on this. The individual concepts should be ready by January.

Apple and Google have also postponed the end of the pure home office to January. At Apple, the requirement to come to the office on at least three days caused complaints. So far, the group does not seem to deviate from the plan.