Laszlo Bock, a consultant and former Google executive, compared Andy Jassy’s demand that Amazon employees spend five days a week in the office to the same thing as ordering a meal at a restaurant.
Let’s say you’ve chosen the hamburger at your usual restaurant and suddenly opt for the grilled chicken, Bock suggests. The chicken turns out to be good, “no better than the hamburger, no worse.” Naturally, you’ll go back to the hamburger, or the norm.
“You go back to what you’re comfortable with,” Bock said. FortuneThe co-founder of data platform Gretel AI is an expert in corporate culture and was a senior executive at Google from 2006 to 2016, a period during which the tech giant was named the best company to work for dozens of times. “Why would you eat a chicken sandwich again?” he asked.
It’s a classic story of executives returning to the usual fully in-person work schedule after five years of trying or dithering over flexible, remote or hybrid schedules. Amazon joined the ranks this week, with Jassy increasing the mandatory number of in-office workdays from three to five, in a memo sent to employees Monday. Amazon responded to requests for comment by referring to Fortune to the memo in question.
The memo, posted on the company’s website, emphasizes the importance of in-person presence to nurture corporate culture and collaboration. It also describes changing the structure to reduce the number of management positions.
Bock called this approach “a triumph of traditional management over innovative management,” explaining that the latter style is more difficult and requires more data to support its implementation.
Why do executives hate flexible working?
Hybrid work can be a good way to boost productivity if it’s managed well, Bock said, citing early studies, work by companies like Atlassian that host community events, and the success of employers that implement retreats. Early in the pandemic, productivity increased after companies made efforts to put their plans in place. In turn, employees responded positively, Bock, the study’s author, added. The New York Times bestseller The Rules of Work!: Insights from Google to Transform the Way You Live and Lead.
But making hybrid work successful requires resources, a clear plan and, most importantly, buy-in. Most companies aren’t willing to make the effort without a guarantee of results, which diminishes the potential benefits of hybrid work. Without effective flexible schedules, the downsides of hybrid work have become all the more apparent: diffuse culture, a sense of disconnect, a generic culture and managers who don’t feel in control, he said.
“From a business perspective, there’s no clear, compelling evidence that this is a good thing,” Bock said. And because it’s such a shift, leaders need a wealth of evidence to change course. “Employees love it,” because it values their autonomy and freedom. But they lose out when employers, especially large companies like Amazon that are struggling because of their size, pull back on hybrid plans.
In a sense, companies have botched the hybrid work game, abandoning any new strategy as soon as it was no longer compelling enough. In other words, leaders have “created a self-fulfilling prophecy that is now forcing people to reluctantly return to the office.”
Is Amazon Really Going to Lose Talent?
Amazon’s announcement hasn’t been met with open arms. Some employees have expressed dismay and disapproval of the requirement, with one posting on Slack that it was a sign of “going backwards,” according to Business Insider.
Companies run the risk of losing top talent by forgoing flexibility, but Bock seems to think Amazon isn’t making a bad bet here. “Very few people vote with their feet,” he said, adding that the strategy likely won’t hurt the company in the long run. While it’s controversial and many remote or hybrid employees are likely resentful, many won’t leave, he noted. And successful companies will continue to have a deep talent pool to draw from, even if they issue polarizing ultimatums, he said.
As for the new management strategy, Bock sees it as a way to reduce micromanagement. It’s a “very clear call for productivity, but it’s also a call for managers to focus on improving operations,” he said. He referenced Google’s Rule of Seven, which didn’t hire managers for teams of fewer than seven employees in order to spread out their time and limit any involvement that could border on control.
Still, with all the changes, he “imagines it’s going to be a very stressful time for Amazon managers.” Despite the online criticism, it’s not that unusual for Amazon. It “reflects their values,” such as a tight, intense organizational culture anchored in close management, he said.
Calling the memo “completely expected and actually quite thoughtful,” Bock praised their data-driven approach and added that many companies will likely follow suit. And that approach may be better in the long run, because humans crave social connection and tend to lose it during poorly executed hybrid plans, he added.
Rather than simply issuing a decree like a bank CEO who simply considers RTO important, Amazon is tying its mandate to internal data and culture, he explained. While some companies have tried to wait out the (always looming) crisis to get what they want in the office, and others have taken the gradual “boil” route, neither has proven very effective.
But Amazon is likely to prevail. “They’re going to force it… they’re going to make it happen,” Bock said. He has “no doubt they’re going to measure and monitor it” and that “they’re going to fire people for noncompliance.”
And more edicts could be forthcoming. Amazon is something of an example for others, and “the whole technology thing has moved in that direction,” Bock noted. In other words, “most companies just don’t make the effort and keep ordering the cheeseburger.”
