One after another, large companies are announcing to their employees the end of working from home and their return to offices, whether they like it or not.
And management is very determined to recall their employees to the workplace. For example, Matt Garman, head of Amazon Web Services (AWS), confirmed the new five-day work week at the company’s offices, telling disgruntled employees that they can find work elsewhere.
Mr. Garman, one of the company’s top executives, told workers at a meeting that if they didn’t like the new policy, they could resign, according to a transcript of the meeting reported for the first time by the Reuters agency.
Google and others
“If there are people who don’t work well in that environment and don’t want to do it, that’s OK, there are other businesses around,” Mr. Garman said.
“At Amazon, we want to be in an environment where we work together, and we believe that this collaborative environment is incredibly important to our innovation and our culture,” he added.
Teleworking would harm innovation
The remarks echo those of senior executives at other major companies, who have called remote work a killer of innovation and collaboration.
In August, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt blamed remote work for the tech giant’s loss of lead in the race for artificial intelligence. He then returned to his remarks.
Other companies that have eliminated remote and hybrid work policies in recent years include banks JPMorganChase, Goldman Sachs, Tesla and Walmart.
At Tesla, boss Elon Musk ordered in a tweet in mid-2022 the return of employees to the company’s office.
Disgruntled employees
The tech giant announced the office policy changes last month, and workers will have to completely abandon their remote working arrangements starting January 2. At the time, CEO Andy Jassy said he believed the change would allow Amazon to “invent, collaborate and be connected enough to each other and to our culture to deliver what’s out there.” better for customers and the company.
For their part, the tech giant’s employees called the decision “unfortunate” and “disheartening” on social media and internal message boards. Many were frustrated, feeling it was a step backwards and worried about the impact it would have on their work-life balance.
Shared studies on the effectiveness of teleworking
Mr. Garman (AWS) added that in the era of hybrid working, there were days when his team “didn’t accomplish anything” because team members were working remotely.
While executives have taken to disparaging remote work, the evidence for its effect on productivity is mixed: some studies have shown that working from home can increase productivity – up to 24%, even – while Others have stated the opposite.
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