Amazon Cracks Down On Office Attendance

This year, major corporations such as Farmers Insurance, Citigroup, Chipotle, Lyft, Disney, Snapchat, Google, and Meta, have cracked down on remote work — one of the most obvious signs the employer-employee power dynamic has shifted back to companies. 

According to an email obtained by Financial Times, online retailer Amazon singled out employees who failed to come into its offices consistently, telling them, “not currently meeting our expectation of joining your colleagues in the office at least three days a week.” 

The company appears to have updated its hybrid work policy: “We expect you to start coming into the office three or more days a week now.”

Amazon appears to be tracking employees via their identification badges. The email noted an update to office attendance requirements was only sent to those who “badged in fewer than three days a week for five or more of the past eight weeks [or] have not badged in three days a week for three or more of the past four weeks.”  

There was no word on the consequences for workers who don’t follow the new in-office mandates, and if that means human resources would have to get involved for punishment and or “next steps.” 

The push from Amazon to bring workers back to the office for at least half a workweek could center around productivity, performance, and employee motivation after several years of remote work. 

There are benefits to remote work — but a new study by Stanford University pointed out productivity drops with work-at-home. 

Besides the productivity issue, corporate America is also finding out that the new era of work policies has sent the national office vacancy rate soaring, according to a CoStar analysis. Badge swipe data from Kastle Systems shows office occupancy remains stubbornly stuck below 50% across major metro areas. 

Earlier this week, we cited a new report that said, “about 66% of respondents in a new survey of 700 financial executives working remotely said they would quit their jobs if forced to return to the office 5 days a week.” 

And have told readers, Era Of Remote Work Ends For Millions Of Americans. 

So is Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment still buying Zoom Video Communications?