- Amazon workers in Seattle, Arlington and Washington DC workers could have to move closer to the office
- Amazon has been relocating workers for months, citing boosted productivity
- The company's office-working policy now stands at five days
Amazon is requiring some corporate workers to relocate closer to their managers and teams, including boosting office occupancy across key sites like Seattle, Arlington and Washington DC (via Bloomberg).
The report notes thousands of employees could be forced to move from across various teams, however the company's famously vocal workers are understandably frustrated with the decision.
Amazon has been reassessing where employees work for several months, with the company's leader publicly advocating for office-based working.
Amazon is asking workers to relocate
Although relocating isn't always a problem for new starters, many mid-career workers are hesitant to move due to personal and financial challenges – a move would mean uprooting families, children switching schools and partners seeking other jobs.
The report suggests that workers have 30 days to decide, followed by a 60-day period to relocate or resign. It also claims that those who refuse to relocate will not be receiving severance packages.
Amazon contested this, adding that teammates will receive relocation support, and that timelines for relocations could vary by case.
Amazon's relocation trend has already been ongoing for more than a year, with CEO Andy Jassy previously claiming that in-person working boost ad-hoc interactions and, therefore, productivity.
"We’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and, teams tend to be better connected to one another," Jassy said.
Amazon now requires workers to come to the office five days per week, but that policy got delayed at the end of 2024 due to a lack of readiness – there simply weren't enough desks.
"We hear from the majority of our teammates that they love the energy from being located together, and whenever someone chooses to or is asked to relocate, we work with them to offer support based on their individual circumstances," a company spokesperson stated.
Some workers worry that the policy shift could be an effort to push workers away from the company – although thousands lost their jobs in 2022 and 2023, Amazon's layoffs in the years that followed have been relatively small (compared with other giants in the industry).
An Amazon spokesperson stressed that the policy is not new, but that it's taking a team-by-team approach to in-office working, and that relative to the number of workers the company has overall, the proportion affected is small.
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