Amazon completes remote work. Its employees hope that the company will reconsider

It's back to the office full-time for most Amazon employees around the world, but for some who work for the tech giant and online retailer it's not a welcome change.

“People on my team were upset about this,” said CJ Felli, a software development engineer at Seattle-based Amazon Web Services.

Amazon employees have been working remotely during the COVID-19 crisis. From 2023, they are allowed to work a combined schedule – two days away and three days in the office.

As of Jan. 2, that office requirement has changed to five days a week.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a letter he wrote to employees in September that the company will “return to being in the office the way we were before the start of COVID.”

Employees concerned about lack of data

“What we have been told is that it leads to increased cooperation between groups and innovation,” Felli said in an interview with CBC News. “But whenever we ask for data, which is Amazon's bread and butter, they're not willing to give it.”

Felli was speaking out against the latest mandate to return to the office, along with 523 other Amazon employees who wrote a letter to Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman, saying they were “shocked” by the “not being driven by data.” description” of the five-day mandate at the office and outlined the benefits of remote work in the book.

Felli believes employees are happier and more productive working from home and would like to maintain that flexibility.

“A lot of my focus work is done at home, and I find that breaking away from the monotony really helps,” he said.

What do employees want?

About 18.7 percent of employed Canadians have worked mostly from home as of May 2024, according to the report. Statistics Canada. That's six percent less than in May 2021, but remains more than double what it was before the pandemic.

A flexible workplace is a great option for employees, according to a workplace trends report from global staffing agency Robert Half.

About 40 percent of the workers interviewed said they prefer mixed work, spending two to three days a week in the office. Employers surveyed said they would like their teams to be in the office four days a week.

“That dance between the employee and the employer suggests that we're still on a journey to unify that mix,” said David King, managing director at Robert Half in Toronto.

The online survey conducted in June 2024, included responses from 1,800 hiring managers and more than 1,750 employees in all aspects of finance and accounting, technology, marketing, legal support, management and customer support and human resources functions in Canada.

Hybrid work is still a priority for some companies – 37 percent of managers surveyed offer hybrid work specifically to attract skilled talent.

According to job listings website Indeed, the percentage of job postings in Canada that mention remote/hybrid work has remained steady over the past two years.

“There's value in anything that allows your employees to be fully engaged. And today that seems to be a hybrid,” King said.

Arguing at work

Amazon is one of the biggest companies returning to personal work, but there are others making similar moves.

In September, Dell asked its global sales team to come into the office five days a week to bring “innovation, value and service” to their customers, according to a statement emailed to CBC News.

AT&T entered the new year by ending hybrid work, which requires workers to work on-site.

Employees at Calgary fintech Gigadat have been back in the office five days a week for several years.

“We were probably one of the first companies to bring people back,” said Cliff Nywening, chief operating officer at Gigadat, explaining that their motivations were to improve the mental health of employees and increase productivity.

“Being able to have a meeting automatically adds a lot of value,” he said.

When the pandemic began, Gigadat's more than 100 employees were allowed to work remotely and use a hybrid, but the company quickly transitioned back to being completely in-person.

“Even if you have someone who might be working from home, they're cut off from that conversation when you're around that room,” Nywening said, “that face-to-face contact is so important.”

Although he admits it wasn't an easy decision for everyone to come back and wonders if other workers have lost out as a result.

Amazon's future challenges

But he's glad his company took action early and could see the challenge ahead of Amazon.

“If you have a remote hybrid experience, it's going to be hard to go back to, you know, the typical office work experience,” Nywening said.

Felli, an Amazon employee, still believes the future is mixed and hopes his employer will back down.

“All of our bread and butter is selling products to remote people and selling to people who want to work remotely. So if we can't do the work remotely, what are we selling?” asked Felli.

“It's kind of a catalyst to encourage me to go.”