Amazon To Permit Staff To Telecommute Indefinitely

USA – Amazon announced on Monday (11 October) that it will permit its tech and corporate staff, excluding warehouse workers, to continue to work from home (WFH) indefinitely as long as they can go to the office when needed, reported The Seattle Times on the same day.

This is different from Amazon’s prior announcement that most of its staff would be required to report to their workplace at least 3 days per week once offices reopen next January.

According to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Amazon directors or those who lead several teams will have the discretion whether to permit their underlings to continue working remotely.

“We expect that there will be teams that continue working mostly remotely, others that will work some combination of remotely and in the office, and still others that will decide customers are best served having the team work mostly in the office,” Jassy wrote in a blog post.

“We’re intentionally not prescribing how many days or which days — this is for directors to determine with their senior leaders and teams.”

The new workplace stance, which applies to the almost 60,000 Amazon office workers in the Puget Sound region, is expected to negatively impact the outlook of Seattle’s office market and cause fears among businesses owners in the area.

On the other hand, some Amazon staff said it remains to be seen how many employees will be actually allowed to work remotely indefinitely.

Nonetheless, Amazon’s new announcement would give the e-commerce giant more flexibility in complying with the federal government’s mandate that was announced in September.

Under President Joe Biden’s nationwide mandate, firms with over 100 staff must either require their employees to be inoculated or undergo COVID testing regularly. Notably, Amazon has been hesitant to compel its employees to take the jab amid fears that many of its warehouse staff would resign because of it.