Amazon (AMZN) Web Services chief Matt Garman doubled down on Amazon’s latest five-day in-office work week, telling any disgruntled employees that they will find work elsewhere.
Garman, one among the corporate’s top executives, told employees in an all-hands meeting Thursday that in the event that they don’t just like the latest policy, they will quit, in response to a transcript of the meeting first reported by Reuters.
“If there are individuals who just don’t work well in that environment and don’t wish to, that’s okay, there are other firms around,” Garman said.
“At Amazon, we would like to be in an environment where we’re working together, and we feel that collaborative environment is incredibly essential for our innovation and for our culture,” he added.
That echoes similar comments from top brass at other major firms, who’ve labelled distant work as an innovation and collaboration killer. In August, former Google (GOOGL) CEO Eric Schmidt blamed distant work for the tech giant losing its edge in the bogus intelligence race. He later walked back the comments.
Other firms which have done away with distant and hybrid policies lately include JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Tesla (TSLA), and Walmart.
The tech giant announced the changes to office policy last month, and employees can have to completely ditch their distant work arrangements starting Jan 2. On the time, CEO Andy Jassy said he believes the move will higher set Amazon up “to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to one another and our culture to deliver the best possible for patrons and the business.”
For his or her part, employees on the tech giant called the choice “unlucky” and “disheartening” on social media and internal messaging boards. Many were frustrated, calling the move was a step backward and expressing concerns in regards to the impact it could have on their work-life balance.
Previous reports showed that Amazon had been keeping tabs on how much its employees were coming into the office and sending messages to delinquent employees.
Garman said at Thursday’s meeting, nevertheless, that “nine out of 10 individuals are actually quite excited by this modification.” He added that within the era of hybrid work, there have been days when his team “didn’t really accomplish anything” because team members were working remotely.
While executives have taken to bashing distant work, evidence of its impacts on productivity is mixed: Some studies have found that working from home can boost productivity — by as much as 24%, even — while others have said the other.