Amazon is delaying a five-day return-to-office policy it mandates for thousands of corporate employees due to a lack of workspace, and could be postponed until May 2025 in several U.S. cities. .
The e-commerce giant will allow employees in at least seven cities, including Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, Nashville, Houston, and New York, to return to offices full-time on January 2, as originally planned, according to Bloomberg. The company reportedly informed them that they were unable to respond. news.
The delay affects a private portion of Amazon’s 350,000 employees worldwide. At the Lord & Taylor Building in Midtown Manhattan, some employees may not be able to specify their workspace until May, while Dallas-based employees expect delays until March or April. I was told that.
This situation appears to contradict Amazon’s original return-to-office guidelines. Internal guidance states that “for the vast majority of employees, their assigned workspace will be available by January 2, 2025.” “If your assigned workspace is not ready by January 2nd, we still expect everyone to be fully working from the office by that date.”
Employees struggle with RTO obligations
Employees report struggling with the current three-day hybrid model, citing issues such as shared desks, crowded company cafeterias, and a lack of conference rooms for confidential calls and team meetings. “The company has added a feature to its room booking tool that requires employees to prove they actually plan to use the space, in an effort to crack down on squatters looking for a quiet place to work. “This is a clear initiative,” one employee pointed out.
The space shortage comes three months after CEO Andy Jassy announced a controversial order requiring employees to work in the office five days a week. The policy has proven its effectiveness during remote working and has faced resistance from employees who prefer flexible arrangements common among their peers in the tech industry.
To meet its immediate space needs, Amazon is leasing temporary offices from WeWork in New York and Silicon Valley. The company previously paused several office development projects during the pandemic, including developments in Bellevue, Nashville, and Arlington, Virginia.
An Amazon spokesperson said the delay was primarily due to the reconfiguration of the building needed to accommodate full-time office workers, rather than a lack of available office space. The company claims that the “vast majority” of its employees will have desk space by January 2nd, and that it is communicating directly with affected employees about specific return dates for each location. .
