Amazon's full RTO is off to a bumpy start. Some staff complain of a lack of space and theft. And they're still on video chats.
zhengshun tang/Getty, Tyler Le
- Most Amazon corporate employees started working in the office five days a week in January 2025.
- Some employees reported issues such as lack of desks, full parking lots, and office theft.
- Others are keen to re-connect with colleagues. "You just can't recreate these connections online."
Amazon's five-day return-to-office mandate is off to a bumpy start.
Employees who spoke to Business Insider said the new office policy, which kicked off at the beginning of the year, has resulted in full parking lots, a lack of desks and meeting rooms, and items being stolen from desks.
While some employees praised the new policy as more face-to-face interactions have at times resulted in better collaboration, others say they still spend much of their time on video chats and in other virtual meetings.
BI spoke to seven current Amazon employees about the new office mandate. The employees also shared screenshots of group Slack messages and other private communications.
"Please go back to RTO3," one Amazon employee wrote on Slack, referring to Amazon's previous policy that allowed staff to work two days a week from home. "Or allow employees the option to WFH if they have the proper set up and they are high performers."
That Slack post garnered at least 22 supportive emojis from other Amazon colleagues.
Change is hard
Amazon
Amazon has 1.5 million workers, of which roughly 350,000 are corporate staff. So those people who are openly complaining about the full RTO experience represent a tiny fraction of the company's workforce.
Some of the complaints may be a natural reaction to what is a drastic change of daily life for thousands of employees who slowly got used to working from home in the pandemic, and now must adjust again to a new reality.
Peter Cappelli, director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources, told BI that forcing employees to return to the office can stoke resentment. But even if management does a poor job with the transition, employees cannot do much because RTO is often "painful." And quitting isn't an option as fewer companies offer remote work these days, he noted.
"Employers have all the power here," Cappelli added.
Some Amazon employees are RTO-happy
Amazon
Not all Amazon employees are grumpy about working in the office every day of the week.
BI asked Amazon for examples of employees who are positive about the full return to office. The company's press office shared thoughts from two employees.
Rena Palumbo, an Amazon Web Services employee, said re-establishing human connection with colleagues has been important, and she's now more excited about working with them.
Cash Ashley, another AWS employee, said face-to-face interactions have been crucial for building work relationships and creating mentorship opportunities. He said RTO also helps with work-life balance because there's a clear separation between work and home.
"You just can't recreate these connections online," Ashley said.
In an email to BI, Amazon's spokesperson said the company is focused on ensuring the transition is "as smooth as possible."
"While we've heard ideas for improvement from a relatively small number of employees and are working to address those, these anonymous anecdotes don't reflect the sentiment we're hearing from most of our teammates," the spokesperson said. "What we're seeing is great energy across our offices, and we're excited by the innovation, collaboration and connection that we've seen already with our teams working in person together."
CEO Andy Jassy said last year that the new policy is meant to improve team collaboration and "further strengthen" the company's culture. AWS CEO Matt Garman also told employees in October that 9 out of 10 people he spoke to were "excited" about the change.
Lack of desks and meeting rooms
Most of Amazon's corporate employees started following the five-day office return mandate in early January. There are some signs that the company wasn't fully prepared for the logistical challenges.
Some workers found there weren't enough desks and had to track down space in a cafeteria or a hallway, two employees told BI. Others said there weren't enough chairs in offices and meeting rooms.
There's also been a shortage of meeting rooms, one of the people said. Some people got used to speaking openly about private topics while working from home. Now they're surrounded by colleagues in the office, so they are unofficially slipping into meeting rooms and phone rooms to conduct these conversations, this person said. That's clogged up meeting spaces and left some managers having private chats in open areas for everyone in the office to hear.
Full parking and shuttles
Amazon
Some Amazon employees complained on Slack that when they drove to the office they were turned away because company parking lots were full. Others said they just drove back home, while some staffers found street parking nearby, according to multiple Slack messages seen by BI.
One employee from Amazon's Nashville office said the wait time for a company parking pass is backed up for months, although another staffer there said the company was providing free commuter passes which they described as "incredibly generous."
Another Amazon worker said some colleagues are joining morning work meetings from the road because the flood of extra employees coming to the office is making commutes longer.
Other staffers said they were denied a spot on Amazon shuttle buses because the vehicles were full, according to one of the Slack messages viewed by BI.
Signs of strain
With so many Amazon employees spread out across well over 100 locations around the globe, getting everyone back into an office smoothly is going to take more than a few weeks.
Indeed, Amazon delayed full RTO at dozens of locations, with some postponed to as late as May, due to office capacity issues, BI previously reported. Amazon subsidiaries, such as One Medical and Twitch, have also delayed or received exemptions from the five-day office-return policy, BI reported.
"Our upper 'leadership' has botched this so hard along with so many other things. Makes one wonder what other poor decisions will impact the company in the coming year," an Amazon worker recently wrote on the company's Slack.
Amazon's spokesperson told BI that the company is ready for the vast majority of employees to be back in the office.
"As of early January, the overwhelming majority of our employees have dedicated workspaces and have returned to the office full time," the spokesperson said. "Of the hundreds of offices we have all around the world, there are only a relatively small number that are not quite ready to welcome everyone back a full five days a week."
Office thefts and daily shower reminders
In some cases, basic office etiquette seemed missing as staff returned in the first week or so of January.
Several employees at Amazon's Toronto office complained of their personal belongings being repeatedly stolen from desks, according to the Slack messages.
One person complained that a keyboard and mouse placed on their assigned desk had gone missing, while another urged employees to keep their possessions in a safe place.
"Despite being adults that are well-paid, it's shameful that we can't trust each other with leaving personal belongings unattended," one worker wrote on Slack. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment when BI specifically asked about this issue.
An office "survival guide"
On Blind, which runs anonymous message boards for corporate employees, Amazon staffers posted an "essential survival guide," offering tips for colleagues coming back to the office.
"Operation: Don't Be The Office Menace" listed several dos and don'ts for working around other people.
"Deploy personal hygiene protocols BEFORE leaving your launch pad (home). Yes, that means actually using the shower you've been avoiding since WFH began," read one piece of advice for office life at Amazon.
Another urged colleagues to keep the toilets tidy. "The bathroom stall is not a 'serverless' environment. Flush after use β it's called 'garbage collection' for a reason."
A third tip focused on the types of shoes to wear in the office. "Footwear is not optional. This isn't a beach sprint retrospective β keep those toes contained in their proper containers (shoes)."
'Very little team discussion'
RTO has been one of Amazon's most contentious issues over the past couple of years. Tens of thousands of Amazon employees signed internal petitions opposing the mandate, while internal Slack channels blew up with questions about the change. Jassy has had to address the issue repeatedly during internal all-hands meetings.
This month, some employees were still questioning the logic behind the policy. They said being in the office has so far had little effect on their work routine and has not generated much of a productivity gain.
A considerable portion of their in-office work is still being done through video calls with customers who are located elsewhere, these employees told BI.
Many Amazon colleagues are based in other office locations, so face-to-face meetings still don't happen very often, they added.
"Very little team discussion while here," one employee wrote on Slack.
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