Global manager guidance on Amazon’s return-to-office policy reportedly gives managers the power to fire workers who fail to abide by the company’s decision to enforce three-day-per-week office-based working.
A report from Insiderclaims the update was said to have been communicated with managers internally in mid-October, several months after the company introduced the new hybrid working rules.
According to the notice, managers must first engage in a discussion with workers who are not hitting their office-based target.
Amazon’s RTO just got serious
From there, managers may end up having to take disciplinary measures against offending workers, which could potentially result in the termination of their contract.
The notice reads (via Insider): “If the employee does not demonstrate immediate and sustained attendance after the first conversation, managers should then conduct a follow-up discussion within a reasonable time frame,” which Amazon suggests should be between one and two weeks.
The notice continues to detail how managers should highlight that returning to the office three days per week is a requirement of their job, and that “continued non-compliance without a legitimate reason may lead to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of your contract.”
The requirement was first communicated in February 2023, around a month before the company conducted its third round of mass layoffs, this time totalling around 9,000 and bringing the season’s total to around 27,000.
Effective from May, workers took to the Internet and their workplaces to express their dissatisfaction. More than 30,000 signed an internal petition and, at the end of May, workers at one location staged a walkout.
TechRadar Pro has asked Amazon to confirm its latest decision to enact termination as part of its RTO non-compliance disciplinary measures, but the company did not immediately respond.
If the report is true, it wouldn’t be the only company to do so. Earlier this month, Roblox CEO David Baszucki said that workers failing to comply with its policy should also be prepared for termination.
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Via Insider
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