As the pandemic wanes, going back to the office isn’t so cool for some who have become accustomed to working from home.
Last week, over 2.3,000 Disney employees filed a petition against CEO Bob Iger’s request that employees return to the office for a Monday-Thursday work week beginning March 1. Today, CNBC reports that there is a similar revolt at Amazon, where several employees spoke out against CEO Andy Jassy’s demand that employees go back to working three days a week starting May 1. A Slack channel was set up on Friday by Amazon employees voicing their concerns, numbered north of 14K as of today.
When Deadline reached out to an Amazon representative about the situation, they directed us to Jassy’s Friday memo to staff.
Then Jassy said: “It’s not easy bringing many thousands of employees back to our offices around the world, so we’re going to give the teams that need to do this work some time to come up with a plan. We know it won’t be perfect initially, but the office experience will steadily improve over the coming months (and years) as our real estate and facilities teams smooth the wrinkles and ultimately evolve in how we want our offices to be set up to capture the new ways of working that we want. I know people will have questions about how this change will be implemented. We will finalize these details in the coming weeks so please check Inside Amazon for these updates.”
“We, the undersigned, call on Amazon to protect its role and status as a global retail and technology leader by immediately terminating the RTO policy and issuing a new policy that allows employees to work remotely or more flexibly , if you wish. as her team and professional role will allow,” read a draft petition, reported by Business Insider.
The petition included statistics showing how remote working improves productivity, cuts costs and attracts top talent. Of concern was how a return to in-person presence would affect these parents, minorities, carers and people with disabilities.
Jassy and Iger share similar views on going back to the office. For the former, his note describes how working together “makes it easier to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture” and “collaborating and inventing is easier and more effective when we’re in person.”
Iger emphasized in his Jan. 9 memo, “In a creative organization like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe and create with colleagues that comes from being physically together, nor the opportunity to grow professionally Develop by learning from leaders and mentors. I am convinced that the more personal collaboration will benefit the creativity, culture and careers of our employees.”
The Washington Post first reported that those protesting a return to office at Disney came from such divisions as ABC, 20th Century Studios, Marvel Studios, Hulu, Pixar and FX. Those who prefer to work remotely at the Mouse House argued that productivity would be negatively impacted, as would efficiency and output. They also believed that a return to face-to-face contact would lead to resource shortages and layoffs.
Amazon employees are upset as Jassy’s previous hybrid workplace statements have touted that one size doesn’t fit all. The affected Amazon employees are reportedly those hired to fill remote roles outside of the shopping site/streamer’s main hubs in Seattle, New York and Northern California.
“Of course, like before the pandemic, there will be certain roles (e.g. some of our sales people, customer support, etc.) and exceptions to these expectations, but that will be a small minority,” Jassy said.
Deadline reached out to Disney, which did not comment on the return-to-work petition.