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Many Amazon workers may never have to go back into the office again.
The retail giant just announced a shift in its work policy that will allow more employees to choose to continue to work from home on a permanent basis.
According to a letter sent to employees by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, teams will decide for themselves what work environment is best for them. This may mean an in-office experience, remote work or a combination of the two.
“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,” Jassy wrote in the announcement.
Jassy added that the company would not be giving mandates on how many days — if any — a team needs to work in the office.
“The decisions should be guided by what will be most effective for our customers; and not surprisingly, we will all continue to be evaluated by how we deliver for customers, regardless of where the work is performed,” he wrote.
This move by one of the country’s biggest employers is just further evidence that COVID-19 has deeply changed the landscape of the nation’s work environment. At the start of the pandemic in early 2020, many employees faced shutdowns and had to adapt to working from home. Over time, some people not only adjusted to remote work but discovered they preferred it over being in an office.
This has led many companies, including Amazon and Twitter, to adopt more flexible policies meant to not only keep their businesses running during this pandemic — or any future disaster — but also to keep their employees happy.
In addition to team-level decisions for at-home or in-office workplaces, Amazon said it will allow corporate and tech employees to work away from the office for “up to four weeks per year fully remote from any location” within their country of employment.
“We also know that many people have found the ability to work remotely from a different location for a few weeks at a time inspiring and energizing,” Jassy wrote. “We want to support this flexibility.”
The Amazon CEO concluded by saying the company will continue to evaluate the ongoing changes and implement what works best for the company and its customers.
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