Amazon's RTO Push: Are We Headed Back to the Office for Good?

The news probably didn’t escape you, but Amazon has mandated employees to return to the office five days a week, ending hybrid work privileges starting January 2025. 

As one of the most stringent mandates among tech giants especially, this immediately raised a question for me about the future of work flexibility. Are we going back to the office for good?

According to a new KPMG study, CEOs certainly think so.

But will we? And how does it affect HR leaders?

Let’s dive in.

Amazon’s Return-to-Office Plans

In case people didn’t know it yet, it’s clearly no longer the Jeff Bezos era. Andy Jessy, who previously ran AWS, has been in charge since the end of 2020. (That’s why you only see Bezos on red carpets and yachts.)

And Andy has always had a preference for in-person collaboration. 

According to CEO Andy Jassy, in-person collaboration is crucial for maintaining Amazon’s rapid pace and culture, which has been challenging to uphold as the company scaled rapidly during the pandemic​. 

Already last year, Andy warned people that if they didn’t get back into the office, “it’s probably not going to work out for you.” In line with Amazon’s leadership principles, he urged folks to ‘disagree and commit.’

Many Amazonians view the mandate as a "betrayal," especially those hired under the previous remote and hybrid work policies. 

Some employees plan to engage in “coffee badging,” showing up just to badge in and quickly leave, illustrating the friction between corporate expectations and employee desires. 

And it’s obvious who will bear the brunt of that friction: HR and workplace experience leaders. 

This is all part of what I told Fortune’s Orianna Rosa Royle: companies like Amazon are playing a negotiation game: 

“They’re asking for five days to get three, as employees have grown used to the autonomy and productivity that hybrid work offers.” 

As I mentioned in that article, even pre-pandemic, office occupancy was typically around 70%, not the full five days a week that Jassy advocates.

The Broader CEO Perspective: A Return to the Office?

Amazon’s RTO announcement comes as CEOs reconsider the balance between remote and in-office work. 

A recent KPMG survey of 400 U.S. CEOs revealed that nearly 80% expect their corporate employees to return to full-time office work within the next three years.

This is more than double the 34% who expressed this view just last April, but even then I said that thinking doesn’t equate to happening:

“There are too many benefits for companies and employees to discontinue hybrid and remote schedules. More importantly, it’s an opportunity for happier employees and positively drives diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) efforts.”

Stanford economist Nick Bloom, a prominent voice on work-from-home policies, notes that such mandates are not without risk, especially in the context of work-from-home being stable.

First of all, because quit rates at Amazon could go up to 30%, especially among the most valuable, high-performing employees who are often the first to leave when stricter RTO policies are enforced. 

At the same time, companies struggle to maintain innovation and collaboration without the flexibility that remote work provides. 

So, those 80% of CEOs thinking (I hope yours isn’t one of them), let ‘m think! 

We Don’t Need an Office – We Need Intention 

As I’ve said before, the office has historically acted as a “crutch,” where engagement, recognition, and connection occurred by default. 

In contrast, hybrid workforces require companies to create intentional engagement strategies, which can lead to richer connections and higher overall engagement​.

We saw this in our Hybrid Work: Myth versus Reality report, where we noted how hybrid companies invest a lot more in driving engagement:

• wellness programs (50%)
• knowledge-sharing initiatives (37%)
• virtual career development (36%)
• team-building activities (35%)
• dedicated 'water cooler' channels (31%)

Despite Jassy’s insistence on the benefits of in-office work, recent research suggests that requiring employees to work from the office five days a week may not build the company culture as effectively as intended. 

A PwC report highlights that this approach is largely a myth. The real drivers of culture are the daily interactions and purpose-driven initiatives that can happen both in person and virtually​.

All we need is the intention from leaders to design an employee experience that drives joy, creativity, collaboration, and productivity. As case studies from Nvidia and Atlassian have shown, no office is needed for this to be done well. 

The Bottom Line: Will Amazon’s Gamble Pay Off?

Your CEO will likely closely watch Amazon’s approach and any fall-out. 

The real question is whether Amazon will suffer a talent drain or gain a competitive edge by fostering faster innovation and better collaboration. 

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman, speaking on Amazon's decision, noted in WSJ, "There’s one world in which Amazon loses talent—it doesn’t become an employer of choice. And there’s another where Amazon innovates faster, resolving issues more quickly than its competitor.”​

HR leaders shepherding a happier future of work will need to remind leaders that flexibility pays off. 

As the experts in this article share and hybrid work statistics show, people who have more flexibility perform better, are better team members, and stay with companies longer.

At the same time, companies can save on costly office space (see our overview of desk booking software to make that happen) and lower carbon emissions in line with green goals.

Now, that’s a win-win if I’ve ever heard one.

Until next week,

– Daan