A year ago, it may have seemed as if everyone was working from home while you had to trudge to an office three days a week.
Now, it might feel as if everyone else is back at the office, and major cities have the traffic (and long coffee shop and Sweetgreen salad lines) to prove it.
Things have largely normalized, and many cities are once again bristling with commuters, tourists, and bewildered Gen Z workers, many of whom are learning for the first time what it's like to work in an office.
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Except: If you're Andy Jassy, things don't quite feel normal enough. To the Amazon (AMZN) -) chief executive, the workplace isn't teeming with the same energy it had prepandemic.
Jassy for months has been laying the foundation for a return to the office. He began the campaign in February, saying in a letter that "we should go back to being in the office together the majority of the time (at least three days per week)."
He sharpened the language in April, telling employees that they were expected to be on the job in person most weeks. And while he acknowledged that remote work was successful and results were "impressive," it certainly wouldn't be a long-term solution.
"We also looked hard at how we were working together as a team and asked our corporate employees to come back to the office at least three days a week, beginning in May," he wrote in April.
"During the pandemic, our employees rallied to get work done from home and did everything possible to keep up with the unexpected circumstances that presented themselves. It was impressive and I’m proud of the way our collective team came together to overcome unprecedented challenges for our customers, communities, and business. But, we don’t think it’s the best long-term approach," he added.
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Now that April has long come and gone, some employees are still dragging their feet about a full-fledged return to the office. For some, it means a total relocation to a new hub where their offices or teams are based. For others, it means earlier wake times and longer commutes.
Jassy does not feel sympathetic about such issues.
"It's past the time to disagree and commit. And if you can't disagree and commit, I also understand that, but it's probably not going to work out for you at Amazon because we are going back to the office at least three days a week," Jassy said in an internal memo first reported by Business Insider.
He took aim squarely at the foot draggers, accusing them of receiving unfair treatment.
"It's not right for all of our teammates to be in three days a week and for people to refuse to do so," he said.
It's not clear how many Amazon employees are still remote, or how much more productive the employees who are back in the office have been..
It's probably safe to say, though, that the back-to-the-office effort isn't entirely popular. Back in March, 30,000 Amazon employees signed an appeal to the company's human-resources department to protest the return-to-office policy. It was later scrapped by HR head Beth Galetti.
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