AWS CEO to office-return opposers: 'There are other companies around'

The chief executive officer of Amazon Web Services (AWS) told employees who don't want to return to the office that they can look for other organisations instead, according to various reports.

"If there are people who just don't work well in that environment and don't want to, that's okay; there are other companies around," said AWS CEO Matt Garman as quoted by CNBC.

But Garman, who made the remark during an all-hands meeting, clarified that he didn't mean that "in a bad way."

"At Amazon, we want to be in an environment where we are working together, and we feel that collaborative environment is incredibly important for our innovation and for our culture," he added.

"When we want to really, really innovate on interesting products, I have not seen an ability for us to do that when we're not in person."

Amazon recently ordered a full-office return for employees starting January 2025, a move that was reportedly unpopular among its workforce.

A poll from job review site Blind revealed that 73% of employees are considering looking for a new job because of the mandate.

Defending Amazon's office return

Garman, however, said nine out of 10 people are "actually quite excited by this change," CNBC reported.

He stressed that the organisation just wants to have an office environment, but noted that it would be "fine" for an employee who wants to work from home for a day with their manager's approval to focus on a quiet environment.

The AWS boss further pointed out the benefits of working together in an office, particularly on productivity, internalising the company's leadership principles, and being able to express grievances on certain projects.

"I don't know if you guys have tried to disagree via a Chime call," he said as quoted by Reuters. "It's very hard."

Amazon's office-return mandate was met with strong dissatisfaction from its workforce, according to a reported survey that was circulating in the organisation's Slack.

Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO, previously cited the benefits of working together in person in his order to mandate office return in 2025.

"When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant," Jassy said in a previous statement.

"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."