Redditors slam Amazon CEO who denied RTO mandate being a backdoor layoff, 'would be illegal if he admitted it was'

In September 2024, Amazon released a company-wide memo mandating employees to return to the office five days a week, moving from the current three-day-a-week mandate, starting next year. The controversial plan gained much attention with employees calling it to be much stricter than other tech companies while pointing out the 'inefficiency' of the plan as they will lose valuable time in commute.

Since the announcement, there has been much chatter about Amazon's decision with some claiming it be a way for the company to 'force people to quit' without them having to officially be laid off.?

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy denies return-to-office is 'backdoor layoffs'

While there have many speculations regarding Amazon's strict decision and claims of it being a 'backdoor layoff', Amazon CEO Andy Jassy denied these claims at an all-hands meeting on November 5th.

As per a transcript of the said meeting reviewed by Reuters, Jassy said that he has seen people theorising the reason for this action to be a 'backdoor layoff' or some sort of deal struck with the cities, but that is not the case. He further added, that this plan is not a cost play for the company but rather a way to strengthen their culture.

How did Redditors react to his statement?

Amazon CEO denies full in-office mandate is 'backdoor layoff'
byu/SolSparrow intechnology

As soon as news of his statement and a transcript of his interview went viral, Redditors started calling out the hypocrisy of Amazon's action. While one user commented, "What a surprise that he would say this." another added, "Would be insanely illegal if he admitted that it was"

Another user pointed out the facts saying, "Data is still severely lacking in the real cost-benefit of having all corporate workers commute into the office 5 days a week.Productivity soared throughout Amazon Retail and AWS during Covid. Yet here we are."

While a few others started suggesting to Amazon employees their course of action once they do return to the office with comments like "All these people should just start going back to office and then they’ll have no choice to officially fire them. " and "Once the 5-day work week starts everyone should clock out at 5pm on the dot and ignore all after hour communications."

What is 'backdoor layoffs'?

For the uninitiated, 'backdoor layoffs' is the latest trend going around the corporate work culture that shaping the company's approach towards job cuts. In this emerging method where employers apply tactics like cutting perks, increasing workload, micro-managing or issuing 'performance improvement plans' in order to encourage resignations.?

'Backdoor layoffs' or silent layoffs are done to cut costs and terminate employment while successfully avoiding negative press. While this helps the company save face in front of the press, the employers lose the trust of the employees and their morale takes a deep dive.

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