Amazon to its employees: Next year, the 5-day work week will begin on site

Next year, Amazon will expect many employees to work in-person five days a week.

CEO Andy Jassy told Amazon employees on Monday that the tech giant will “return to in-office work as we did before COVID hit” starting Jan. 2, with people expected to be in the office “except in special circumstances… or if you’ve already been approved for a remote work exemption by your S-Team leader.”

This is the latest update to Amazon’s on-site and remote work rules. The tech giant had already switched from remote work to a mandatory three-day on-site work schedule in May last year and implemented several other changes.

Jassy linked the new five-day rule to Amazon’s efforts to be “better positioned to invent, collaborate and be sufficiently connected to each other and our culture to deliver the absolute best for customers and the business,” his message said.

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He also pointed to the “significant” benefits in terms of culture, engagement, collaboration and training that he believes come with working in person, even at Amazon.

Still, the tech giant’s CEO acknowledged that Amazon employees were able to work virtually even before the COVID pandemic, for example when they were away due to illness or business travel, and said they would understand such circumstances “in the future as well.”

The company has numerous offices, including headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and Arlington, Virginia, as well as corporate offices in dozens of other locations around the world.

The tech giant had already moved from remote working to a mandatory three-day in-office schedule in May last year and introduced several other changes. (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“We will also reinstate fixed desk arrangements at locations that were previously organized as before, including the U.S. headquarters (Puget Sound and Arlington),” Jassy told employees on Monday. “At locations where flexible desk arrangements existed before the pandemic, including much of Europe, we will continue to do so.”

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At the same time, Jassy announced that the company would adjust its organizational structure.

Amazon has told every “S-Team organization” to have a 15% greater proportion of “individual contributors” compared to managers by the end of the first quarter of 2025, its message said.

The goal of reducing management levels is to encourage more ownership among employees and speed up decision-making within the corporate culture, he explained to employees.

In the first half of the year, Amazon generated total net sales of $291.29 billion. (Pascal Rossignol/Reuters / Reuters Photos)

Jassy said corporate culture has been “one of the most critical aspects” of the company’s success over the years.

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The technology giant had a market capitalization of $1.94 trillion on Monday afternoon.

In the first half of the year, Amazon generated total net sales of $291.29 billion. Net profit for the same period was around $23.92 billion.