“Strongly dissatisfied”: Amazon employees plead for repeal of 5-day RTO rule in anonymous survey

Instead, hundreds of employees at the online retail giant are complaining that CEO Andy Jassy’s order to return to the office five days a week, announced last week, will negatively impact their lives – and their productivity at work. They’re hoping the company will finally change course.

The feedback comes from an anonymous survey of Amazon employees, which was viewed by Assets on Tuesday. Company employees have spread the word widely on the messaging app Slack, including in a “remote advocacy” Slack channel with more than 30,000 members that a former employee created when Amazon first announced a three-day return to the office last year.

This could result in employees who favor remote or hybrid work being more likely to participate in the survey, which could skew the results.

As of the afternoon of Sept. 24, survey respondents’ average satisfaction rating regarding the RTO rule was 1.4 out of 5 (with 1 being “very dissatisfied” and 5 being “very satisfied”). The survey authors said in an introduction to their questionnaire that they plan to summarize the results and share them via email with Jassy and other company leaders “to give them clear insight into the impact of this policy on employees, including the challenges identified and proposed solutions.”

“We are asking for honest, constructive feedback on our recent decision to mandate a five-day return to office life,” the survey’s introduction states.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment.

Amazon had been using a hybrid work structure for the past 15 months before Jassy recently made a high-profile announcement that most corporate employees would have to work a full five-day week from their local Amazon office starting in January.

“Looking back over the past five years, we continue to believe that the benefits of working together in the office are significant,” Jassy wrote last week. “I’ve explained these benefits before, but in summary, we’ve found that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and reinforce our culture; collaboration, brainstorming, and invention are easier and more effective; teaching and learning from each other is more seamless; and teams tend to be better connected.”

Jassy’s statement on the new mandate and a second one announcing a planned thinning of middle management seemed like tacit recognition of a fraying corporate culture within Amazon in recent years, as Assets recently detailed.

Assets has spoken to and messaged several dozen Amazon employees since the announcement last week. Most of them are against Jassy’s decision, citing lower productivity during office workdays and a lack of trust from management in rank-and-file employees and managers due to the RTO policy change, among other reasons. They also complained about the policy’s impact on single parents and a lack of data explaining the decision from a company whose executives often praise data-driven decision-making.

However, some welcomed the step in communication with Assets and argued that just a few years ago, before the pandemic, it would have seemed absurd to use the length or cost of the commute as an excuse to avoid spending five days a week in the office.

Nevertheless, most respondents were against the change or cited complications that the new directive would cause.

“I work with people in many time zones,” was one response. “With RTO, they no longer have the flexibility to simply shift their work hours and collaborate. Three days had an immediate impact here, and five days will only be worse.”

As a solution, the employee suggested “more realistic work expectations if we eliminate working from home.”

“Amazon has gotten used to people working 5 to 10 hours more per week because we don’t have to commute,” the employee said. “RTO means we don’t have as much time to engage at Amazon anymore, and employee expectations need to be adjusted accordingly. Similarly, we have to accept that RTO sets hard limits on meeting times. I can no longer attend an 8 a.m. meeting with the folks in HQ2 or on the East Coast. When I was at home, I could attend early or late meetings pretty easily, but now I’m physically unable to.”

Several respondents particularly raised the issue of trust and distrust, and the fear expressed by many workers that this move will drive away the best talent who can easily find work elsewhere, while leaving other groups with fewer options.

“The people who leave first are the strong engineers you want to work with,” wrote one. “Others who can’t find new jobs or can’t leave because of their visa are unhappy and quietly quit. Anyone who is still there and really wants to work has to fill the gap.”

Another echoed the others, saying the rule “ignores the challenge of requiring people to come into the office but conduct all their work and meetings by phone or video conference.”

Most of those who selected “satisfied” or “very satisfied” left no comments beyond their rating or left a negative comment, suggesting that they may have inadvertently selected a positive rating.

The bad news for those unhappy with the new return-to-office rule is that last year a group of Amazon employees sent a six-page memo to management advocating for the removal of the original three-day in-office requirement, but that memo was rejected. With Jassy and his team continuing to insist on their return-to-office rule, it’s hard to imagine these results leading to any significant change.

Are you a current or former Amazon employee with thoughts on this topic or a tip you would like to share? Contact Jason Del Rey at [email protected], [email protected]or via the secure messaging app Signal at 917-655-4267. You can also send him a message on LinkedIn or at @delrey To X.