“There are other companies around”: AWS CEO Matt Garman says employees pushing back on RTO mandates should quit

Don’t want to return to the office? Amazon has a simple answer for employees refusing RTO mandates: quit.

Matt Garman, chief executive of the tech giant’s cloud division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), told staff at a meeting that they should look elsewhere for work if they didn’t think they could work in the office anymore.

Amazon is one of a few major companies to order employees back to the office after the rise of hybrid working. The company first required workers to come in for a minimum of three days a week, which sparked a backlash among employees — and reports of firings of staff who didn’t comply.

Last month, the tech giant took things one step further, announcing it will require all staff to return to the office full-time, aside from the odd day working from home for sick days, care responsibilities, and needing to focus. At the time, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the move was to “invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other”.

The move immediately sparked a negative reaction from some staff, with reports emerging that some plan to “soft quit”.

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Amazon’s RTO push continues

Amazon appears to have little sympathy for such workers. Garman told workers at a company meeting last week that anyone unwilling to come in for the full five days a week should seek employment elsewhere — but he stressed he didn’t see that as a negative comment.

“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 Garman. “By the way, I don’t mean that in a bad way,” he said, adding “we want to be in an environment where we’re working together.”

Garman said, according to a transcript seen by Reuters, that most AWS staff actually supported the move.

He echoed Jassy’s comments that the RTO was required to ensure innovation and communication at the company. “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,” said Garman.

Quiet firing?

RTO mandates are largely unpopular among workers — Amazon’s sparked a walkout, Dell’s staff satisfaction fell in response — raising the question of why companies persist with calling workers back to the office full time.

While Amazon has repeatedly said the move is to make it easier for staff to innovate together, one suggestion that keeps cropping up is it’s a way to reduce headcount without paying for layoffs.

One survey saw a quarter of executives admit they hoped RTO mandates led to some staff quitting — and they may well get their wish, as just as many staff said they would consider quitting if faced with an RTO mandate at their own office.

Of course, quiet firing comes with a risk to companies: they may find their very best staff are the ones who depart, hurting their innovation in the long run.

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