Oct 28, 2024
Amazon employees aren't too happy with their company's CEO, Andy Jassy, lately.
In May 2023, Jassy instituted a new policy ordering remote workers to report to Amazon offices at least three days weekly. While this new requirement was met with a walk-out, a petition, and a lot of anger, Jassy has doubled down. In a September letter, he gave workers until January 2025 to return full-time to the office five days a week.
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Many workers aren’t gearing up for their new commute, though. Instead, a number say they’re either looking for work or rage quitting rather than opting to return to a full-time in-office arrangement. The big question, though, is whether they'll end up regretting it if they leave.
Amazon workers don't want to return to the office
The news of the return-to-work policy was greeted with near-uniform disapproval at Amazon. In fact, 91% of 2,585 verified Amazon employees surveyed by the job review site Blind expressed dissatisfaction with the new requirement and 73% said they were considering looking for another job.
Laura, who did not share her last name, is one of those workers. “My months of struggling to make three days a week are over, and I know that my time at Amazon has to end,” she told Fortune. “I’ve been updating my resume and portfolio, and rage applying to new jobs on LinkedIn.”
Other workers reported they’d handed in their notice, arranged other interviews, or accepted voluntary termination. Many complained they'd been hired with the promise of a remote job, with some saying they were brought on board with promises of virtual work even after the three-day-a-week policy went into effect.
“The new policy is less flexible than pre-COVID and does not respect the needs of employees to take care of their health, their family, or work-life balance,” a worker called Jared told Fortune.
“I will not go back.”
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Quitting isn't always the wisest move
While it’s natural for workers to be upset about a major change that will impact their work/life balance, rage quitting or making rash decisions in anger isn't always the best long-term career move.
That's especially true in this situation since many big-name companies, including the ones likely to hire former Amazon workers, are also returning to the office. Google has now said employee attendance is a factor in performance reviews and Meta, Facebook's parent company, is also pushing employees back to the office. In fact, all of the so-called FAANG companies (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) have begun to move away from full remote policies.
It’s not just the big tech companies, either, as an August report from Resume Builder found that 90% of 1,000 companies surveyed wanted employees back in the office in 2025.
Those who leave Amazon take a risk of not finding a good work-from-home job in this climate — or of finding one and ending up right back in this position when the CEO orders them to start commuting. If they don't have the same seniority at their new position or accepted work at a smaller business without the prestige of a FAANG company and they're ordered back to work anyway, they'll be worse off.
Ultimately, while being forced back into the office may not be something anyone wants, it's worth considering the long-term impact quitting could have on career and financial stability. Workers who can't get a better job may want to stick it out, rather than accept a worse position just because it's remote only to find out after a few months that their new company wants them in-office too.
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Christy Bieber has 15 years of experience as a personal finance and legal writer. She has written for many publications including Forbes, Kilplinger, CNN, WSJ, Credit Karma, Insurify and more.
