Amazon's CEO just defended his RTO mandate again. The employees are still dissatisfied

In September, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy began his letter, which upended the lives of many of the company's 1.5 million global employees, with the incongruous, cheery-sounding phrase, “Hey team. “I wanted to point out some changes we are making to further strengthen our culture and teams.” Refuting that optimistic beginning, the letter included a mandatory return to office (RTO) that required workers to do so again committed to spending five days a week in the office, just as they did before the pandemic.

The implication behind Jassy's words, according to a BBC report, was that either the 12 percent of Amazon employees who were working fully remotely would return to the office full-time or find employment elsewhere. The RTO move sparked intense criticism and now Jassy is trying to defend it by arguing it was not simply a way to lay off staff – a “disguised” mass layoff.

News site CNBC obtained comments Jassy made at an all-hands meeting this week, where he said he knew some people had suspected the reason for the RTO rule was a “backdoor layoff” or that the company “made some kind of deal with the city, or cities.”

“I can tell you that neither is true,” Jassy claimed. Reuters also reported that Jassy tried to emphasize during the meeting that the RTO rule was not a cost issue, but rather “very much about our culture and strengthening our culture.” This is reflected at least in some of his words in his September message to employees.

But it doesn't address the enormous backlash Amazon is facing from its own workforce, who remain angry at the reign and suspicious of leadership's motives. According to CNBC, many employees have argued that they are just as productive working from home or in hybrid mode as they are in a full-time office. Others say it's entirely in line with Jassy's efforts to cut costs at the retail and digital advertising giant.

They claim that it is actually about forcing some employees to leave, in line with several pushes that have seen 27,000 employees laid off since 2022. CNBC noted that about 500 employees who work for Amazon's cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services, wrote a letter to that division's chief, Matt Garman, last week criticizing his support for the RTO rule and instead arguing that “remote work and flexible working are an opportunity for Amazon to take the lead, not a threat.”

Amazon employees' sentiment is, of course, supported by plenty of research that says remote work can be extremely efficient – including a recent report from the International Monetary Fund that said: “A fivefold increase in remote work since the pandemic could boost and deliver economic growth.” “More comprehensive benefits.”

Jassy's words could also sound wrong when it comes to the point of “strengthening culture”. If the company culture is “Do as we tell you or else,” what mood does that convey in the workforce? What culture does Jassy promote? As the Amazon Cloud employee letter highlighted, employees actually “want to work for a company and for leaders who recognize and use this moment to challenge us to reinvent the way we work.” Threatening to retain employees who are Not wanting to adhere to an inflexible rule (or simply not being able to, perhaps for family reasons) is not a signal to encourage innovation or to employees to “work together and be sufficiently connected.” “Others,” as his September letter suggested.

What can your company learn from this? Of course, there are times when a company's leaders have to make difficult decisions, which may upset some of your employees. But companies rely on their employees to be successful. Appealing to a sense of “culture” while threatening some members of that culture itself and appearing deaf to their complaints may not be the smartest move to get your employees on your side.