Amazon will allow individual directors to decide how often their teams can work remotely as part of its latest return-to-office plan. Like Apple, Facebook and Google, the company had most recently planned for its corporate employees to return to the office by the start of 2022. At that point, Amazon said its expectation was most would come into work at least three days a week. Recognizing the ongoing complexity of the pandemic, the company has decided to take a more flexible approach.
“We expect that there will be teams that continue working mostly remotely, others that will work some combination of remotely and in the office, and still others that will decide customers are best served having the team work mostly in the office,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in an email to employees the company shared online.
The company expects most teams will need a few weeks to develop and communicate their respective plans. Once they’re ready, Amazon anticipates they’ll share details before January 3rd, which is the date the company had previously set for employees to return to the office. Of all the office reopening plans we've seen detailed in recent months, Amazon's seems the most reasonable yet. Factors like varying vaccination rates and caseloads in different cities and states have made it difficult to predict how the pandemic will continue to evolve.