For years, Amazon employees and executives have warned that the company’s unique corporate culture was starting to fray. The worries have crescendoed recently, as I reported in this deep Fortune investigation on the growing pains of Jeff Bezos’ famed leadership principles and management rules.
On Monday, Bezos successor Andy Jassy tacitly acknowledged this reality while proposing a pair of would-be silver bullets: a push to flatten the organization and reduce middle management layers and, most controversially, a five-day return-to-office mandate starting in January. Amazon has employed a hybrid work model in recent years, requiring in-office work three days a week since May of 2023.
"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. "I’ve previously explained these benefits, but in summary, we’ve observed that it’s 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."
