AWS CEO Suggests Workers Leave If They’re Not Returning To The Office: Report

Amazon’s new in-office work policy starts Jan. 2.

Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman has reportedly suggested workers who don’t want to abide by an upcoming five-days-a-week in-office work policy can find employment elsewhere.

According to Reuters, an all-hands meeting for the Seattle-based cloud giant included Garman telling attendees that "if there are people who just don't work well in that environment and don't want to, that's OK, there are other companies around."

"When we want to really, really innovate on interesting products, I have not seen an ability for us to do that when we're not in-person,” Garman said, according to Reuters.

[RELATED: Mandatory Return To Work: What Amazon Got Wrong]

AWS Return-To-Office

When asked for comment, an Amazon spokesperson said in an email that the return-to-work policy “is an effort to strengthen our culture and ensure that our teams are connected so that they can invent, collaborate, and deliver the best results for our customers and the business.”

“Suggesting otherwise is inaccurate,” the spokesperson said. “We’ve observed that being in the office together makes it easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and, teams tend to be better connected to one another.”

The spokesperson continued: “We recognize there will occasionally be days when someone might need the flexibility to work from home for the day, and for those occasions, employees should communicate with their manager—just as they would have prior to the pandemic.”

Andy Jassy, CEO of AWS parent Amazon.com, revealedthe new policy in September. It will take effect Jan. 2. Amazon’s current policy requires employees to work in the office at least three days a week with the ability to work from home two days per week.

Garman said that 90 percent of the workers he’s talked to support the new policy, according to Reuters. His comments echoed Jassy’s concern that a reliance on remote work has stifled innovation and collaboration.

A variety of tech giants have been revisiting remote working policies put into effect at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. IBMordered more in-office work earlier this year. Salesforce has been mandating select workers to come into the office four to five days a week started Oct. 1, according to The San Francisco Standard.

Dell has been making hybrid workers come into the office 39 days a quarter–salespeople have been in-office five days a week since September–and said remote workers aren’t eligible for promotions or role changes, according to Business Insider.