Amazon Puts Hybrid Work In The Rearview Mirror

Hybrid work this, hybrid work that… Did we speak too soon??

Amazon seems to think so. The trillion-dollar retailer announced Monday that it will require its workers to be in the office five days a week starting January 2, 2025. With the announcement, it becomes the largest employer this year to announce a full-time return-to-office policy.

The notice from CEO Andy Jassy was part of a larger memo aimed at targeting bureaucracy and strengthening the company’s culture and teams.?

Only about 7% of large tech companies tracked by Flex Index, a database of flexible work policies, require their employees to be back in the office full-time, Forbes’ Jena McGregor reports . Amazon now joins the likes of Tesla and digital commerce firm NCR, while other big tech companies still have hybrid work policies in place.?

Does that mean your employer could also go-back to a five-day policy? Maybe, according to future of work experts. Many companies are likely to revisit the conversation, but Amazon presents a pretty unique case, as it’s known for having an intense work culture . And data has shown that at least some bosses have hoped that return-to-office would lead to voluntary turnover .

Still, Amazon’s decision could “give license to those executives who already are predisposed to anxiety” about remote work and productivity, Brian Elliott, a former senior vice president at Slack, tells McGregor.

Happy reading and hope you have a lovely week!?

—Maria Gracia Santillana Linares , Careers Reporter

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• You don’t need to start over, or go back to school, to change your career .?
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• Looking to take the next step in your career and join a board of directors? Here’s what you need to know.

Event Recap: Forbes Future of Work Summit

Last Thursday, Forbes brought together founders, CEOs, chief human resources and people leaders to talk about how the nature of work keeps changing for the third Future of Work Summit. Panelists discussed everything from how AI is going to change the way we work to how to implement meaningful skills-based hiring practices. You can check out a short recap below, and find more information on our live-blog here.

With a slew of new ideas, theories and yes, trendy phrases, the future of work and careers atmosphere can feel like an echo chamber. But how do we turn those promises of flexible work, 4-day workweeks, childcare benefits, and alternative hiring pipelines into a reality?

That was the question Forbes senior editor Jena McGregor posed to attendees during the summit’s opening remarks.??

Take AI for example: It’s undeniable that the technology is not only changing the way we work––think of the AI assistants from almost every workplace app––it’s also shifting the way people leaders think about team and job structures.?

“I think a lot about how you get senior people if you don’t have junior people” whose jobs can be the most vulnerable to being replaced by AI, said May Habib, cofounder and CEO of Writer AI.?

There are some positives, however. Winston Weinberg, cofounder and CEO of Harvey AI, said the technology will allow entry-level employees to learn “mastery” skills earlier on. And especially for managers, AI can be a time saver—but it also requires learning a new set of skills.?

“Most of the managers in our organization are player-coaches,” Doniel Sutton, chief people officer at Pinterest, said. “That means they have to be that themselves and they also have the added responsibility of overseeing their teams.”

Especially when it comes to flexible work structures. Despite what Amazon may be implementing, most companies today are still utilizing hybrid work schedules.?

This conversation isn’t just about whether to have remote work or not, it’s also about, as employees, the importance of having the ability to dictate your working hours. This is especially true for working parents. As the cost of childcare continues to rise, employees are turning to employers for options, whether it be stipends or in-person care. It’s a gender issue too: “The reality is that workplaces have never worked for women,” said Reshma Saujani, founder of Mom’s First, pointing to the disparity between school and work hours.

TOUCH BASE

News from the world of work

It’s been a tough week for aircraft-maker Boeing. About 33,000 of its workers are currently on strike after they overwhelmingly rejected a new contract with the company, walking off the job Friday. The strike will impact delivery and operations, according to Boeing’s CEO , which could cost the company up to $1 billion. In order to curb costs, the company said Monday that it would freeze hiring, pause non-essential staff travel and stop taking new orders for several plane models.

Ten years after Lean In’s first “Women in the Workplace” report, gender parity is still years away. While 29% of C-suite leaders are women, up from 17% in 2015, that’s mostly because of new positions added to the top-level, including chief human resources officer and chief legal officer. Contributor Kim Elsesser breaks down the report.?

Tech workers don’t just work at big tech companies. Released today, Forbes’ list of the Best Employers for Tech Workers ranked the top 200 employers across all sectors—from healthcare to retail—for employees working across the IT and “tech” departments , including software development, cybersecurity, cloud computing and technical support, among others.

Quiz

Which of the following companies was rated among the 10 best in terms of paid parental leave, according to an online database from Hillary Cookler, a researcher at the UCLA Anderson School of Management?

A: Netflix

B: Apple

C: Amazon

D: Costco

Click here to see if you got it right.

Thank you for reading! We'll be back next week with another edition of Forbes Edge.