New Amazon plan: Workers in the office five days a week, leaner management

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy issued a letter to employees on Monday. One of the key pullouts was that the e-commerce giant expects workers to return to the pre-pandemic setup of being in the office five days a week.

“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,” wrote Jassy.

“Before the pandemic, not everybody was in the office five days a week, every week. If you or your child were sick, if you had some sort of house emergency, if you were on the road seeing customers or partners, if you needed a day or two to finish coding in a more isolated environment, people worked remotely. This was understood, and will be moving forward as well. 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—our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances (like the ones mentioned above) or if you already have a Remote Work Exception approved through your s-team leader.”

Amazon (AMZN) is going to bring back assigned desk arrangements in locations that were previously organized that way, including the U.S. headquarters locations in Puget Sound and Arlington, Virginia.

The Seattle-based company also said teams are being asked to organize to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of Q1 2025. Having fewer managers is seen removing layers and flattening organizations more than they are today.

Shares of Amazon (AMZN) were down 0.85% at 1:55 p.m. on Monday. The e-commerce stock is up about 21% on a year-to-date basis.