Amazon’s Full-Time RTO Mandate: Perspectives and Data

It’s now been over a month since Amazon announced its full-time RTO mandate.

“As we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a message to all employees. “If anything, the last 15 months we’ve been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits.” 

Since then, the backlash has been swift. 

73% of Amazon employees surveyed reported they were considering quitting. Many believe the mandate is a way to covertly reduce headcount, and most are wondering which other large tech companies will follow suit. 

So, a month on, which camps have people’s perspectives migrated into? And most importantly – what does the data actually say about the benefits of being in the office full time? Does it supercharge collaboration, togetherness and culture like its proponents claim, or stifle productivity and destroy morale?

In this post, we’ll explore the different viewpoints and the merit behind them. 

Amazon’s rationale behind the RTO mandate 

Amazon’s leadership believes that collaborating and learning are easier in-person. Teams who see each other frequently are better connected, as per Jassy’s three day per week RTO announcement in February 2023. 

Is ramping up to five days per week just a natural progression, or is there more to it? 

“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 on being in the office full time. 

Amazon hasn’t shared any data on the results of its 2023 RTO mandate. But in the announcement to employees, Jassy said these are all better in-person: 

• Onboarding of new employees




• Meetings, since those leading the meeting can assess how attendees are responding to and digesting the information 




• Asking questions when someone is unsure of something 




• Brainstorming, innovating and inventing 




• Building stronger connections within teams

While these may be solid reasons to spend some time in-office, leadership hasn’t shared the link between ending flexible work and better results.

However, after the RTO mandate, Amazon’s company earnings increased to $6.7 billion in Q2 2023. Compare that to $2 billion for the same quarter in 2022.

Attributing this growth to spending more time in the office is reductive and simplistic.

But it’s undeniable 55,000 employees returning to Seattle headquarters has been a boon for local businesses. Some reported transaction increases of over 100%. 

But does all this this really justify a forced full-time return to the office? 

Amazon employee and wider public reactions to the RTO mandate

The overall response to the mandate has been negative. 91% of roughly 2500 employees surveyed at the end of last month were unhappy with the mandate. 32% reported knowing a colleague who had already resigned as a result. 

After 2023’s mandate, one former Amazon employee created a remote work advocacy Slack channel that’s now reached over 30,000 members. A recent survey on this channel shows employee satisfaction with the mandate as 1.4 out of 5. 

Although the mandate won’t take effect until January 2025 to give people time to make adjustments, extra compensation or support for such a significant lifestyle change hasn’t been shared by the company. 

And for those living within a feasible commuting distance, the mandate makes a fatal flaw of failing to adjust expectations in accordance with hours lost to commuting. 

According to an employee interviewed by Fortune, “Amazon got used to people having an extra 5-10 hours a week to work because we weren’t commuting.” That racks up to a huge dent in productivity across 300,000 plus employees. 

The wider public tends to agree.

“It’s not about the commute, it’s about control, ”one reddit user on a remote work forum commented three months ago.  “If I go in, I’m done at 5. Don’t call me after hours. Don’t expect me to respond to stuff after 5. It’s not happening.”

What does the data on hybrid work and productivity actually say, though?

Broader Business and Industry Reactions

Does Amazon’s mandate mean a swathe of other companies are about to follow suit? 

Dell certainly has. A September 26th memo stated that all sales employees must be in the office five days per week. But with only four days notice, this sent parents scrambling to make last minute child care arrangements. This about-face comes two years after CEO Michael Dell stated in a LinkedIn post that companies forcing employees back into the office are “doing it wrong”. 

Google and Meta have assured employees that hybrid work will continue. Companies included Disney, JP Morgan and Starbucks require three days per week in the office, with JP Morgan making it public knowledge that it tracks attendance. Starbucks encountered a backlash after announcing its own three day per week mandate when it came to light that the CEO would be commuting in on a private jet. 

Time will tell if other companies will use Amazon’s example to enforce five day mandates of their own. But it’s worth considering that most companies don’t have the size or brand power of Amazon, meaning they can’t take risks on the same scale. 

Mandates vs productivity, collaboration and wellbeing: the data

Is there any evidence to support Amazon’s claim that collaboration and performance improve when people are together in the same building five days a week?

We need more data, but the answer leans towards no.

A study published in June 2024 found that a hybrid schedule with two days per week working remote doesn’t damage performance but improves retention. 

What about Amazon’s assertion that proximity builds connection?

A 2023 study found that both physical proximity and social connection are essential for team collaboration. However, strong social connection can actually offset the need for physical proximity. For Gen Z employees used to building communities online, this could suggest that a hybrid approach works best.

58% of employees said their mental health would decline if forced back into the office, according to a study by Gallup.

A study by Scoop also shows that companies with flexible work location policies outperform their more rigid peers by 16 percentage points of revenue growth.

Mandates vs employee retention: the data 

A sudden flurry of CV polishing is one of the largest risks companies have to weigh up when deciding to implement RTO mandates.

Some allege that Amazon’s full-time RTO mandate is an way to quietly lay off employees. So perhaps, concerns with higher turnover don’t apply here, although it’s unlikely Amazon would want to lose their top performers. 

And from the evidence gathered over the last few years, that’s exactly what happens when RTO mandates come into play. 

A Gartner survey found that after a strict RTO mandate, top performers’ intent to stay was 16% less than at more flexible  companies – double the amount of average performing employees. 

Considering that 73% of Amazon employees polled by Blind are considering looking for a new job as a result of the mandate, it’s more than likely some top performers are eyeing up their exit as well. 

“The people that leave first are the strong engineers you want to work with,” wrote an Amazon employee interviewed by Fortune. “Others that can’t find new jobs or can’t leave due to visa are miserable and quiet quit. Anyone left that actually wants to work has to pick up the slack.”

There’s two sides of the same coin to look at here. On one side, many Amazon employees likely won’t have much difficulty finding a new hybrid role by virtue of the last job headline on their CV. This is especially true of top performers. 

On the flipside, it won’t be a challenge for Amazon to find an extensive pipeline of applicants to replace any that head out the door. 

But assessing the cost of RTO mandates is far more complex than the number of people who quit. The people who do decide to stay and settle into a placid state of disengagement could have an even worse impact on culture and profit than the people that leave.

If boosting connection, collaboration and productivity is the end goal, are there other approaches than RTO mandates and the risks that come with them?