SEATTLE — Amazon will not bring all of its corporate employees back to the office in January, instead leaving the decision up to individual teams on whether to work remotely, in the office, or both.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced the change on the company's blog, Monday. The tech company's return-to-office date was originally expected to be September 2021 and then was pushed back to January 2022.
The tech giant originally planned to have employees working at least three days a week in the office and two remotely, but it's now planning to leave that open ended for team directors to determine.
One of the only requirements is that Amazon wants most of its employees close enough to their core team that they can travel to the office for a meeting within a day's notice. However, Amazon will continue to allow employees who can successfully do their jobs remotely to have the option to work up to four weeks per year fully remote from any location within their country of employment.
"We also know that many people have found the ability to work remotely from a different location for a few weeks at a time inspiring and reenergizing. We want to support this flexibility," said Jassy in the blog post.
Jassy said the company will continue to adjust as it learns what makes the most sense for customers and employees.
Amazon's announcement comes as other tech companies have also delayed their return-to-office dates.
Redmond-based Microsoft announced in September that it has delayed the return to in-person work indefinitely while the state of the pandemic remains uncertain.
