Amazon employees overwhelmingly expressed unhappiness with the company’s recent return-to-work announcement to require in-office work five days per week starting in January 2025, according to a Sept. 24 report from Blind, a professional social network.
Ninety-one percent of the Amazon workers responding to a Blind poll said they’re dissatisfied with the newly announced schedule, and 73% said they’re thinking about looking for another job due to the RTO policy.
“My morale for this job is gone, gonna totally check out till PIP,” one Amazon employee wrote on Blind, referring to performance improvement plans. The “plan for the next year is badge minimum needed Mondays and Fridays and come in as usual the other days.”
Amazon made the announcement Sept. 16, saying it would require the company’s more than 350,000 workers to return to the office five days per week on Jan. 2 and end the current three-day in-person schedule.
In the three days after that, Blind surveyed 2,585 verified Amazon professionals, with 80% saying they knew someone at the company who was thinking about looking for another job due to the policy change. In addition, 32% said they knew someone who had already quit in response to the announcement. Amazon hiring managers also have reportedly seen candidates drop out of the hiring process due to the loss of remote work opportunities.
Some Amazon employees cited concerns about being hired to work remotely, changes in flexibility and autonomy, and a drop in work-life balance for working parents and caregivers.
Professionals in the tech industry believe other tech companies may follow Amazon’s lead, according to another Blind poll of more than 8,300 participants. More than two-thirds agreed that companies such as Apple, Meta and Microsoft will likely make similar announcements.
A quarter of C-suite and VP executives and 18% of HR pros said they hoped for voluntary turnover with RTO policies, according to a BambooHR report. More than a third of managers, directors and executives said they believe their company conducted layoffs during the past year because fewer employees quit than expected during the RTO transition. In response, many employees are using performative tactics both in the office and remotely, with 42% showing up only to be seen by their managers and bosses.
As RTO mandates continue, rigid policies are likely to drive away high performers, women and millennials, according to a Gartner report. The attrition of these employees often costs companies in terms of productivity and loss of high-quality talent in critical positions, the firm said.
Although 80% of employers reported losing talent due to RTO mandates, about a quarter said they’re still planning to increase in-person work days, according to a Resume Builder survey. About half of companies said they already ask workers to be in the office four days per week, and most said they planned to maintain those in-office days — if not increase them.