Amazon boss tells workers they can quit if they don't want to come to the office

Amazon (AMZN) Web Services chief Matt Garman doubled down on Amazon’s new five-day in-office work week, telling any disgruntled employees that they can find work elsewhere.

Garman, one of the company’s top executives, told workers in an all-hands meeting Thursday that if they don’t like the new policy, they can quit, according to a transcript of the meeting first reported by Reuters.

“If there are people who just don’t work well in that environment and don’t want to, that’s okay, there are other companies around,” Garman said.

“At Amazon, we want to be in an environment where we are working together, and we feel that collaborative environment is incredibly important for our innovation and for our culture,” he added.

That echoes similar comments from top brass at other major companies, who have labelled remote work as an innovation and collaboration killer. In August, former Google (GOOGL) CEO Eric Schmidt blamed remote work for the tech giant losing its edge in the artificial intelligence race. He later walked back the comments.

Other companies that have done away with remote and hybrid policies in recent years include JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Tesla (TSLA), and Walmart.

The tech giant announced the changes to office policy last month, and workers will have to completely ditch their remote work arrangements starting Jan 2. At the time, CEO Andy Jassy said he believes the move will better set Amazon up “to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other and our culture to deliver the absolute best for customers and the business.”

For their part, workers at the tech giant called the decision “unfortunate” and “disheartening” on social media and internal messaging boards. Many were frustrated, calling the move was a step backward and expressing concerns about the impact it would have on their work-life balance.

Previous reports showed that Amazon had been keeping tabs on how much its employees were coming into the office and sending messages to delinquent employees.

Garman said at Thursday’s meeting, however, that “nine out of 10 people are actually quite excited by this change.” He added that in the era of hybrid work, there were days when his team “didn’t really accomplish anything” because team members were working remotely.

While executives have taken to bashing remote work, evidence of its impacts on productivity is mixed: Some studies have found that working from home can boost productivity — by as much as 24%, even — while others have said the opposite.

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