Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy aims to simplify the operations of the world’s largest online retailer and cloud-computing company by reducing management layers and requiring employees to return to the office five days a week starting in January.
The restructuring, communicated in a memo to staff on Monday, reflects concerns voiced by some long-time employees about the increasing difficulty of accomplishing tasks at Amazon. The company, which prides itself on operating like a collection of startups, has seen a rise in stories about prolonged discussions, unnecessary meetings, and layers of approval.
In his communication, Jassy highlighted these issues, mentioning “pre-meetings for decision meetings, an excessive number of managers feeling the need to review topics before progress, and initiative owners feeling less empowered to make recommendations as decisions are made elsewhere.”
Jassy detailed that each major division within Amazon must raise the ratio of individual contributors to managers by 15% by the end of March 2025. He also introduced a mechanism for employees to report concerns about unnecessary processes.
“We want to operate like the world’s largest startup,” Jassy stated in the message, also posted on Amazon’s corporate blog. “This involves a dedication to continuously innovating for customers, a sense of urgency, high ownership, quick decision-making, resourcefulness, frugality, close collaboration, and mutual commitment.”
This approach also entails a departure from Amazon’s previous leniency regarding the location of office-based employees.
Previously, Amazon mandated that employees physically check in at least three days a week based on their team’s requirements. The new return-to-office policy will accommodate exceptional circumstances and approved fully remote positions, with employees given a few months to adjust, according to Jassy.
“We recognize that some employees may need to make adjustments to their personal arrangements to consistently return to the office five days a week,” Jassy noted.
While the majority of Amazon’s approximately 1.5 million global employees are hourly workers involved in tasks such as item retrieval and package shipping, remote work has never been an option for them. However, the company also employs hundreds of thousands of office-based staff, with around 350,000 of them at the time of its largest-ever layoffs, which began in late 2022.
This announcement is likely to lead to increased foot traffic in downtown areas where Amazon has a presence, including Seattle, where the company is the largest corporate tenant, as well as Bellevue, Washington, Arlington, Virginia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, Boston, and Nashville.
Previous attempts by the company to bring employees back to the office were met with opposition from some staff who argued that the company was inflexible and failed to provide evidence that in-person work yielded better results.
“Maintaining a strong culture is not guaranteed,” Jassy emphasized. “It requires continuous effort.”
