Amazon is set to abandon its work-from-home practices, requiring employees to work in the office five days a week starting next year.

In a letter to staff, chief executive Andy Jassy highlighted the “significant” advantages of working together in the office, stating that it is easier for employees to learn, collaborate, and invent when they are physically present, and that teams tend to be better connected. However, it remains unclear what this change will mean for differently abled staff who may rely on the flexibility of remote work.

The online retail giant previously required staff to be in the office at least three days a week for the past fifteen months. Jassy said that this move had reinforced the company’s view about the benefits of working in the office.

Employees will be allowed to work remotely under certain circumstances, such as illness, visiting customers, or emergencies.

“When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” Jassy wrote. “If anything, the last 15 months we’ve been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits.

“Before the pandemic, it was not a given that folks could work remotely two days a week, and that will also be true moving forward,” Jassy added. “Our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances.”

Jassy also shared that Amazon intends to reduce the number of managers as part of an organisational restructuring to reduce bureaucracy. The move will “remove layers and flatten organisations,” according to Jassy.

“If we do this work well, it will increase our teammates’ ability to move fast, clarify and invigorate their sense of ownership, drive decision-making closer to the front lines where it most impacts customers (and the business), decrease bureaucracy, and strengthen our organisation’s ability to make customers’ lives better and easier every day,” Jassy said.

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