Amazon wants to force “voluntary layoffs” on employees if they don’t move close to their team “hubs.” This is shown by news that insiders have.
Amazon is asking its employees to move to their individual team’s “hub” offices.
Anyone who refuses can either find a new team or it will be counted as “voluntary resignation”.
It’s Amazon’s latest attempt to encourage more personal work.
According to an internal email and Slack messages obtained by Insiders, Amazon has started enforcing its so-called “return-to-hub” policy in recent weeks. Hubs are the central locations assigned to each individual team – employees must work from these hubs and not from an office closest to their current city.
According to a Slack message, a manager has designated hubs for his team in Seattle, New York, Houston, and Austin, Texas. It states that those who refuse to relocate to one of these centers will either have to transfer to a new team or will be considered “voluntarily leaving”.
Amazon wants to encourage more personal work
The move is part of Amazon’s effort to encourage more personal work. As part of the original return-to-office policy, Amazon assigned offices to most individual employees, but not to the entire team. Some employees told Insiders that this makes working in the office pointless, as many still have to use video calls to connect with their colleagues across the country. Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, said in his RTO announcement earlier this year that “collaborating and inventing is easier and more effective when we’re there in person.”
In an email to Insider, Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said there’s “more energy, collaboration and connection since we’re working together at least three days a week.”
“We continue to explore the best ways to bring more teams together in the same locations, and we will communicate directly with employees when making decisions that affect them,” said Glasser.
The new policy has come as a shock to some employees, particularly those hired for virtual jobs or who have relocated to remote locations during the pandemic. Ahead of the RTO announcement in February, Amazon said in a statement that it has no plans to force employees back into the office while it will “continue to experiment, learn and adapt for a while.”
Employees have these opportunities if they don’t move to the team hubs
“I’ve seen many posts over the past week asking people to move to one of the hubs, regardless of their virtual status or currently assigned cities/countries. People who had been approved to move to another virtual location country were asked to move back to one of the hubs in the US, let alone people in other cities in the US,” the Slack message said.
Employees who refuse to join a hub have 60 days to find a new team that will allow them to remain in their current city, according to Slack messages and an internal email Tuesday. If they are unsuccessful after 60 days, this will be considered voluntary termination. Most employees were told to make their decision by August.
Amazon’s spokesman said relocation assistance will be available and that the company will make exceptions on a case-by-case basis. Some functions, including sales and customer support, can still be done remotely.
Still, the change only adds to the frustration of Amazon employees. Earlier this year, shortly after the RTO announcement, over 30,000 Amazon employees joined an internal Slack channel and signed a petition demanding a rollback of the RTO announcement.
Amazon’s HR director, Beth Galetti, flatly denied the petition in March, Insider previously reported.
“I recognize that this is completely unethical, not people-centric and doesn’t strive to be the best place to work in the world,” wrote another person on Slack. “It’s so dystopian for the endgame. None of us know how to process this news.”
This text has been translated from English. You can find the original here.