?? Amazon is crazy for that

?? On The Clock is a biweekly newsletter sharing opinions and advice on the world of work — and the way it should be. If this episode was sent to you, subscribe here so you don't miss the next one!

Hey ??

Welcome back to this week's volume of ?? On The Clock.

In case you missed it, Amazon is forcing people back into the office — and it’s pretty obvious what we think about it.

Amazon’s people aren’t happy. In a survey after the announcement, 91% of employees said they were dissatisfied with the change, and 73% said they were thinking about looking for another job.

I obviously don’t work for Amazon, and I really struggled to put my finger on why this announcement annoyed me so much. Then, when looking at CEO Andy Jassy’s letter to Amazon staff, this part jumped out at me:

I read this paragraph a couple of times and I still couldn’t figure out what Jassy was trying to say. I think the message to employees was: if you come back into the office, it will be easier to make decisions and collaborate?

(I don't know if employees need to be "joined at the hip" to do that... But anyway)

Reading between the lines, it's clear Amazon wants its team where it can see them. They want people working for a set number of hours and sitting at their assigned desks. Yeah, you read that right… assigned desks ??

Contrary to Jassy's letter, people don't need to be in your line of sight to do really great work ??

Processes are important. But results are all that matter

Jassy did his best to reassure staff that going back to the office is the best move for them. He even announced his “Bureaucracy Mailbox” and encouraged Amazon staff to send in examples of bureaucracy or unnecessary processes so the company can root them out.?

I would argue making people (grown adult employees) work at designated desks should be sent straight to the Bureaucracy Mailbox. Another policy banning any remote work outside of "extenuating circumstances" also belongs in the mailbox.

None of these processes or policies (or even Jassy’s 1400-word announcement) mention arguably the most important word in any workplace: results.?

People go to work to get stuff done and achieve results. There isn’t any evidence that forcing people into an in-house, 5-day work week will empower them to do that.??

Admittedly, it took us a minute to figure out the best way to keep our team happy and the business growing was to focus less on hours, and more on output. This led us to creating RAFT (Results and Accountability First at Toggl ) — our radically different approach to a modern work environment.?

It gave our team more flexibility. It reduced burnout. It helped with retention. And gave the team (yes, grown adult employees) the freedom to schedule work around their lives.

But most importantly, our policy delivered results for Toggl on a business level. And at the end of the day, what else really matters if our people are achieving that? ??

A place of work doesn’t decide productivity

Our entire culture at Toggl is built on a belief that being busy ≠ being productive. Our management team knows employees are productive at different times, and making someone clock in at 9 and clock out at 5 doesn’t guarantee 8 hours of high-impact work.??

Does that mean that remote work is better than hybrid or in-house? Not at all.?

But we do have the mindset that people can be productive from anywhere (at any time) when they're empowered to do so. Just look at this weekly schedule our Head of People, Dajana,?recently shared on LinkedIn:

You’ll notice:?

?? The 27 hours of focused, uninterrupted work. Dajana is confident these focused hours were more productive for her than someone sitting in an office doing 9-5.

?? She took (most of) Thursday and Friday off. Why? Well, she prefers to work on weekends. The lack of interruptions on a Saturday morning mean she gets more done in less time. It's not how everyone wants to work, but it's how Dajana gets results — and that's the most important thing.?

Now, not all weeks look like this for Toggl workers.

Sometimes, we work 40 hours a week. Sometimes, we work 20. Most of the time, it's somewhere in the middle. The point is our weeks are results orientated. And we definitely aren't chained to a designated desk waiting for Bezos' clock to tick past 5pm.

After Amazon's announcement, it's worth repeating again (and again) that good work can be done anywhere — you just need to empower your people.??

Thanks for reading ?? On The Clock?— see ya in two weeks ??