Amazon wants to ensure that its employees actually stay in office and work and do not just record their attendance and leave after having coffee. Simply put, Amazon is tracking the number of hours the employees are actually spending in office.
According to media reports, the retail and cloud-computing teams and certain others have been told to stay in office for a minimum of two hours, while the rest have been told to clock at least six hours, or else their attendance will not be marked.
These strict measures as part of the e-commerce company’s return-to-office (RTO) policy are aimed at keeping employees from simply logging in their presence and leaving, according to a Quartz report.
Amazon had implemented a policy in February 2023 that made it mandatory for employees to come to the office at least three days a week starting in May. This mandatory work-from-office policy did not go down well with the employees. Following the announcement, around 30,000 employees had petitioned for its reconsideration. They had urged the company to abandon the policy. In May, protests in the US were organised by Amazon employees against the same policy.
It is pertinent to mention here that in November 2023, Amazon had made it clear to its staff members that failure to return to the office may hinder their chances of receiving promotions. Amazon had clarified that employees who failed to adhere to the work-from-office guidelines would require approval from the vice president for promotions.
