Amazon has become the latest major company to mandate a full return to in-person work, post-pandemic. 

Starting Jan. 2, corporate staffers will be expected to be in the office five days a week, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo to employees on Monday, unless they can cite "extenuating circumstances" or they have been granted an exception by their manager.

The decision marks a significant shift from Amazon's earlier policy, which required employees to badge in three days a week.

In his memo, Jassy said Amazon has observed that it is easier for employees to "learn, model, practice and strengthen" the company's culture, and brainstorm, when they work together in person. "If anything, the last 15 months we've been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits," he said.

Following the announcement, anxious workers have flooded LinkedIn and X feeds with posts wondering if their companies would be next to get rid of flexible work arrangements.

Amazon's peers may 'move in lockstep'

Amazon's move could prompt other companies to introduce stricter in-office requirements for employees by the end of 2024, says Dan Kaplan, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry.

"CEOs rarely take a bold stance on return-to-office without consulting their peers first," he says. "Whenever there's an announcement like this, there are usually plenty of other business leaders who are prepared to move in lockstep right behind them."

Amazon joins several other companies including Citigroup, Walmart and UPS in tightening return-to-office requirements in recent months. 

Such mandates, however, haven't encouraged more desk workers to resume their commutes. During the first week of September, offices across the U.S. were still only about half as full as they were before the pandemic, according to data from Kastle Systems. 

'Employees at large tech companies will feel the ripple effects of this announcement the most'

Workplace experts agree that most organizations will stick with the post-pandemic norm of spending two to three days per week in the office.

Just one-third (33%) of U.S. companies require employees to come to the office five days a week, according to recent data from Flex Index, a platform that tracks companies' flexible work policies. Under 10% of tech companies with more than 1,000 employees have such a requirement.

Brian Elliott, an executive advisor on workplace flexibility, has been saying the concept of spending five days a week in the office is "dead" for months even before Amazon's announcement. His opinion hasn't wavered.  

"We might see other smaller tech companies follow Amazon's lead, but most will continue sticking to some kind of hybrid arrangement," he says. "A top-down, one-size-fits-all office mandate can lead to a lot of resentment among workers."

The only industries Kaplan expects to continue to push for a full return to the office are tech, financial services and retail. Leaders in those fields tend to spend more on commercial real estate and are "the most adamant" that remote work can pose security concerns, he says.

Workers in other industries worried about losing their job flexibility shouldn't sweat Amazon's announcement too much, Elliott says.

"Employees at large tech companies will feel the ripple effects of this announcement the most, but it won't lead to a sudden rush of 5-day mandates," he explains. "Instead, we'll likely see big tech firms getting more hard-nosed on getting their workers to come in 2-3 days a week, either with badge-tracking or tying in-office attendance to performance and salary reviews."

Flight risks and other dangers of RTO mandates

Amazon may encounter blowback from its employees. Some of its high-performers could quit, Elliott cautions. He points to one 2023 report from Gartner which found that high-performers, women and millennials are the "greatest flight risks" when organizations implement stricter RTO mandates.

Stricter office attendance policies could also hurt Amazon's ability to a more diverse pool of candidates. Research has shown that women, people of color and those with disabilities are more likely to opt for remote work.

For now, most companies focus on "smaller, more realistic wins" when it comes to in-person work, says Kathy Kacher, a consultant who advises corporate executives on their RTO plans.

"Bosses are more accepting of the fact that we might not go back to how things were before the pandemic given how unsuccessful attempts to crack down on in-office attendance have been in the past," she says. "Many leaders been fighting the RTO fight for years — and as long as their bottom lines and productivity remain strong, they've decided RTO isn't the hill they want to die on."

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