Amazon tracks US staff, sends warning to those who don’t work in office 3 times a week
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Amazon’s move is among a raft of measures being used by companies to force employees back to the office.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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US workers at technology company Amazon are being called out for not spending sufficient time in the office.
Employees are now expected to work on-site three times a week, after the attendance mandate became effective in May.
On Wednesday, some workers were alerted by e-mail that they were not meeting this requirement.
“We are reaching out as you are not currently meeting our expectation of joining your colleagues in the office at least three days a week, even though your assigned building is ready,” according to the e-mails shared with the Financial Times.
A follow-up message on a corporate message board said the e-mail was meant for workers who came into the office fewer than three days a week for five or more of the past eight weeks.
It appears attendance is being monitored via staff tapping in with their work passes.
Some employees said they received the e-mail by mistake, and have been asked to clarify their attendance with human resources.
The e-mail also raised concerns over privacy among some employees, while angering others.
“Is this supposed to scare people?” one Amazon employee wrote in an internal Slack channel, according to a screenshot seen by news website Insider.
The tech giant’s move is among a raft of measures being used by companies to force employees back to the office.
Google, for example, also requires most employees to return to the office
In June, it became stricter with the mandate, saying it will, among other things, use office attendance to assess staff performance. Banking giant Citigroup has announced similar enforcement measures.
Work-from-home arrangements were introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic. In recent months, a growing number of employers have been asking staff to return to the office more regularly.
But studies have shown that employees are not keen to return to the office full-time.
A survey of Singaporean workers by global data firm Statista in September and October 2022 found that the option to work from home had the most influence on employee satisfaction.
