Amazon to let individual team managers take remote work decisions
The company previously expected most employees to work from office at least three days a week
Amazon is giving its workers more flexibility over how much time they spend in the office after the company's offices begin to reopen next year.
In a memo to employees on Monday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company will leave it up to individual team managers to decide which policy works for them and how often their employees should come to office for work.
The company had previously planned for its employees to return to the office by the start of the 2022. In August, Amazon said that it expected most employees to work from the office at least three days a week.
Considering the ongoing complexity of the pandemic and employees' preferences, the firm has now decided to take a more flexible approach.
"We expect that there will be teams that continue working mostly remotely, others that will work some combination of remotely and in the office, and still others that will decide customers are best served having the team work mostly in the office. We're intentionally not prescribing how many days or which days—this is for directors to determine with their senior leaders and teams," Jassy said.
However, Amazon wants most of its work-from-home employees to be close enough to their core team so that they are able to easily visit the office for a meeting within a day's notice.
Jassy also said in the note that employees would be allowed to work up to four weeks per year fully remote, provided they work within the country where they are employed.
The new changes only apply to office employees. Other workers, including Amazon's data centre employees, drivers, warehouse staff, retail workers, and those developing devices, won't enjoy so much flexibility in their work schedules.
Amazon expects most teams to develop, communicate and share the details of their respective plans before 3rd January 2022.
Amazon is not the only tech giant to have recently reworked its work-from home policy due to uncertainties regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.
Microsoft announced last month that it would let its employees in the US to continue working from home until further notice. The software company had previously planned to recall staff to their offices in October.
"This is the new normal. Our ability to come together will ebb and flow," Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for modern work at Microsoft, said in a blog post.
Google and Apple have also delayed their mandatory return to the office till January 2022.
Earlier in May, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new "hybrid" work model, in which about 60 per cent of Google's staff would be required to work in the office a few days a week. Another 20 per cent would be able to relocate to "new company locations" while the remaining 20 per cent may apply to permanently work from home, with both groups seeing salary adjustments.
Facebook said in June that it would let all full-time employees work remotely, provided their jobs can be done out of an office.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in a memo to employees, outlining the firm's plans for a hybrid office and remote setup.
"We've learned over the past year that good work can get done anywhere, and I'm even more optimistic that remote work at scale is possible, particularly as remote video presence and virtual reality continue to improve," Zuckerberg wrote in the memo.
He added that the company would expand remote-work eligibility to all levels, including entry-level engineers and early-career employees.