Amazon is making its employees come back to the office five days a week

Amazon employees will be required to return to the office five days per week starting on January 2nd, 2025.

"We've decided that we're going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID," CEO Andy Jassy says in a memo sent to staff on Monday. Employees have been required to work from the office three days per week since May 2023, and Jassy says that "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."

Jassy says that staffers won't have to be in the office to deal with things like a sick kid or emergencies. "But, before the pandemic, it was not a given that folks could work remotely two days a week, and that will also be true moving forward." Employees who have an approved exception will be able to remain remote.

Jassy also says Amazon is upping the ratio of individual contributors to managers companywide by at least 15 percent by the end of Q1 2025. He didn't explicitly say that it would require layoffs but said, "We will do this thoughtfully." He added, "Having fewer managers will remove layers and flatten organizations more than they are today."