Amazon workers 'horrified' as AWS CEO's office backs comments, calls for policy change

By Greg Bensinger

(Reuters) – More than 500 Amazon.com employees sent a letter to the CEO of its AWS unit on Wednesday calling for the withdrawal of an entire office-to-office policy and rejecting his claims that the rule has widespread support and that opponents of Amazon Web should leave service

“We are horrified by your non-data-driven explanation for Amazon imposing a five-day office mandate,” the letter begins.

Matt Garman, CEO of AWS, said at the cloud computing unit's all-hands meeting on Oct. 17 that 9 out of 10 workers he spoke with supported the office-to-office policy, which will take effect early next year.

Those comments are “inconsistent with the experiences of many employees” and “misrepresent the reality of working at Amazon,” according to the letter, which Reuters reviewed after it was sent to Garman.

A spokeswoman said Amazon had no immediate comment.

Garman said he was “pretty excited about this change” and that under the current three-day-per-week policy, collaboration was difficult because people could be in the office on different days.

The company-wide policy, announced in September by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, ​​has been controversial within Amazon, with many calling it wasteful because it adds to commuting time and costs when remote work is implemented. Some say they plan to leave the company. Amazon implemented the policy by asking many workers to move to regional offices, move to Seattle or “voluntarily resign.”

Garman's comments do not reflect any independent data, the letter says, and “violate the trust of your employees who not only have personal experience that shows the benefits of remote work, but have seen extensive data that supports that experience.”

The requirement to be in the office five days per week particularly affects protected class workers, such as those with neurodiversity or child care responsibilities, and does not support Amazon's “strive to be the world's best employer” leadership ethos, according to the letter.

(Reporting by Greg Bensinger; Editing by David Gregorio)