According to an email sent to employees, Amazon workers in the US are facing tracking and penalties if they do not spend enough time in the company’s offices. This move by tech companies reflects a push to move away from work-from-home practices that became popular during the pandemic. Some employees were notified that they were not meeting the expectation of being in the office at least three days a week. The email was intended for workers who had been in the office fewer than three days a week for five or more of the past eight weeks. Amazon clarified that some employees received the email by mistake and encouraged them to clarify their attendance with human resources.
Amazon is not the only employer attempting to motivate workers to return to the office. Apple started threatening punitive action against employees who did not return part-time, and Twitter’s CEO, Elon Musk, required employees to return full-time. The pandemic forced a significant portion of the workforce, including many tech workers, to work from home. As of May 2022, 48% of tech workers reported working fully remotely compared to 22% prior to the pandemic. The majority of tech workers, 85%, are now working either hybrid or fully remote.
This shift marks a significant change from Silicon Valley’s past, where tech giants invested heavily in building extravagant campuses with amenities like catered food and exercise facilities to encourage employees to stay on-site. However, studies have shown that workers are no longer interested in returning to that lifestyle, with three in five tech workers expressing a lack of interest in returning to the office full-time.
Companies implementing such policies have faced backlash, as seen with Amazon workers staging a walkout in June to protest against the return-to-work policies. The recent email from Amazon has reportedly angered some employees. Workers’ rights groups argue that forcing employees back to the office against their will only strengthens the labor movement in the tech industry.
It is worth noting that the push to return to the office comes at a time when the US is experiencing another surge in COVID-19 cases, highlighting the risks that initially led to the shift towards remote work. Hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 have increased in recent weeks, as per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.