Terminating work-from-home policy triggers employee dissatisfaction, Amazon executives warn: "If you're not willing, then get lost!"

Many technology companies in the United States are ending the work-from-home trend that arose during the pandemic, with Amazon strongly urging employees to return to the office, sparking fierce opposition from some employees.

On October 17th, Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), warned at an all-staff meeting that those who do not want to return to the office should resign. He plans to implement a new rule requiring employees to work in the office five days a week.

Amazon announced this new rule last month, which employees must comply with by January 2nd next year. Previously, the company only required employees to work in the office at least three days a week. Garman strongly stated:

If someone is not working well in that environment and does not want to work, that's okay, there are other companies. At Amazon, we want to be in a collaborative working environment, we believe that a collaborative environment is very important for our innovation and culture.

Amazon plans to completely change the work-from-home model during the pandemic to keep up with competitors in artificial intelligence competitions such as Google and OpenAI. This is also one of Garman's main tasks, as he took over the cloud computing business (AWS) department in June this year.

However, this new rule has sparked strong dissatisfaction and opposition from some employees. They believe that the efficiency of working from home or in a hybrid office is as high as working in the office. They argue that this policy wastes additional commuting time, and independent data cannot prove the benefits of working in the office.

According to a source who spoke to CNBC, about 37,000 employees have joined an internal Slack channel created last year, advocating for remote work and sharing dissatisfaction with the return-to-work requirements.

At the all-staff meeting, Garman stated that he has been in discussions with employees, "In fact, ninety percent of employees are very excited about this change." He acknowledged that in some cases, employees will have a certain degree of flexibility.

Amazon is the world's second-largest private employer after Walmart. Compared to many tech peers such as Google, Meta, and Microsoft, Amazon has a more stringent attitude towards employees returning to work, with these companies implementing a two to three-day return-to-work policy