Amazon CEO Andy Jassy tells employees it’s ‘past’ time to commit to the company’s RTO mandate and their jobs are at stake

• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees who disagree with the return-to-office mandate that it’s “not going to work out for you.”
• Amazon’s RTO process has been unusually contentious.
• Jassy declined to provide any data that supports his decision to bring employees back to the office.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy appears to be losing patience with defending its aggressive return-to-office mandate, which has been raging for months.

Jassy dodged questions about the data that drove his decision in a “fishbowl” meeting earlier this month — Amazon’s term for an internal fireside chat. Despite the fact that Amazon is a data-driven organization, he explained that returning to the office was a “judgement” call. And if employees didn’t like it, they could leave, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by Insider.

“It’s past the time to disagree and commit,” he said. “And I understand if you can’t disagree and commit, but it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon because we’re going back to the office at least three days a week, and it’s not right for all of our teammates to be in three days a week and for people to refuse to do so.”

Amazon has gradually increased the rhetoric and consequences for those who refuse to come into their assigned Amazon office three days a week. As previously reported by Insider, the company instituted a policy last month stating that any employee who does not comply with this and has not obtained a rare exception will be forced into a “voluntary resignation.” This came after the company rejected an internal petition signed by approximately 30,000 employees opposing the RTO.

During the Fishbowl discussion, Jassy also claimed that Amazon did not use compelling data when it first permitted remote work during the pandemic. He went on to say that he had spoken with 60 to 80 CEOs of other companies about remote work, and that “virtually all of them” preferred bringing employees back to the office.

And now, to borrow a phrase from Amazon’s famous leadership principles, the boss is telling employees that the time for justifying or complaining about it is over.

Amazon’s spokesperson did not respond to this story.