Amazon CEO: No plans to force employees back to the office

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said this week that the company does not plan to force employees to return to the office. "We have no plans to ask employees to return," Jassy said at the Code conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday. "We're not doing that right now, but as we learn more, we'll adjust accordingly on a case-by-case basis ."

Following the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, Amazon's tech workers were asked to work from home. In October, Jassy said managers of individual teams would decide how often employees should return to the office. That's the exact opposite of Amazon's earlier stated goal of returning to an "office-centric culture."

On Wednesday, Jassy said that most Amazon employees have returned to offline offices, but occasionally work from home. Certain teams tend to travel more to the office, such as hardware teams and creative departments. Meanwhile, other teams, such as technical engineers, are still largely opting to work remotely.

"I think there are some things that are really hard to do remotely," he said. " It's more difficult for inventions to be done remotely ."

Jassy has previously said the outbreak could have a lasting impact on how employees use the office, which has already affected how Amazon hires employees. For example, Amazon is now more open to telecommuting, and hiring from anywhere, rather than focusing only on areas where talent is concentrated.

Amazon's stance on telecommuting is a bit different from other tech companies. Google started in April by requiring most employees to return to offline offices at least three days a week, a move that sparked controversy among employees. Apple is asking some employees to come to the office three days a week starting this month.