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Amazon's ( AMZN ) plan mandates five-day in-office work starting

next

year

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CEO Jassy denies plan is a backdoor layoff or city deal

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Employees express concerns over commuting and efficiency

By Greg Bensinger

Nov 5 (Reuters) - Amazon ( AMZN ) CEO Andy Jassy said at

an all-hands meeting on Tuesday that the plan to require

employees to be in-office five days per week is not meant to

force attrition or satisfy city leaders, as many employees have

suggested.

The controversial plan mandating workers come to Amazon ( AMZN )

offices every day starting next year, up from three days now,

has caused consternation among employees who say it is stricter

than other tech companies and will hinder efficiency because of

commuting times.

Workers who are consistently not in compliance have been

told they will be "voluntarily resigning" and locked out of

company computers.

"A number of people I've seen theorized that the reason we

were doing this is, it's a backdoor layoff, or we made some sort

of deal with city or cities," said Jassy, according to a

transcript of the meeting reviewed by Reuters.

"I can tell you both of those are not true. You know, this

was not a cost play for us. This is very much about our culture

and strengthening our culture," he said.

An Amazon ( AMZN ) spokesperson declined to comment.

Last month Matt Garman, the CEO of cloud computing unit

Amazon Web Services, suggested that workers who did not want to

comply with the full in-office requirement could leave for

another company and said that nine of 10 employees he had spoken

with supported the change.

That prompted a letter signed by more than 500 Amazon ( AMZN )

employees imploring Garman to revise the policy, noting the

company had operated well fully remote and that the new rule

would impact employees with families or medical challenges more

than others.

"We were appalled to hear the non-data-driven explanation

you gave for Amazon ( AMZN ) imposing a five-day in-office mandate,"

according to the letter.

Amazon ( AMZN ) said in response at the time that it is providing

commuter benefits and subsidized parking rates, among other

things, to help with its return-to-office policy.

"It is an adjustment," said Jassy on Tuesday. "I understand

that for a lot of people, and we're going to be working through

that adjustment together."