Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Matt Garman has openly defended the company's decision to implement a five-day-a-week office policy starting in January. According to a report by Reuters, at an all-hands meeting, Garman made it clear that employees who do not want to return to the office full-time have the option to leave.
“If there are people who just don’t work well in that environment and don’t want to, that’s okay, there are other companies around,” Garman said. He emphasised that this wasn’t meant in a negative way, but rather as a reflection of how Amazon wants to create a collaborative work environment.
Garman explained that the company has struggled to innovate and collaborate effectively with remote work. He noted that Amazon’s previous policy, which required three days of in-office work, wasn’t working as intended. “When we want to really, really innovate on interesting products, I have not seen an ability for us to do that when we’re not in-person,” he said.
According to Garman, the current three-day policy made it difficult for employees to connect and work together, as they would often be in the office on different days. He also pointed out that Amazon’s leadership principles, which guide how the company operates, are harder to apply in a remote work setting.
The move to a five-day workweek has faced criticism from many Amazon employees, who argue that commuting is a waste of time and that the benefits of working from the office aren’t backed by data. Some employees who didn’t comply with the existing three-day policy have reportedly been told they were "voluntarily resigning" and had their access to company systems revoked.
Despite the backlash, Garman remains enthusiastic about the change. “I’m actually quite excited about this,” he said, though he acknowledged that not everyone shares his enthusiasm.
Amazon’s return-to-office approach is stricter than many other tech companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft, which have adopted more flexible policies requiring two to three days of in-office work. CEO Andy Jassy announced last month that the shift to five days in-office was necessary to improve collaboration and innovation at the company.
For employees who feel they can't adapt to the new policy, Garman's message was simple: “That’s okay, there are other companies around.”