"30% Resignation Rate Expected" The World's Best Employer Completely Abolishes Remote Work [Jjinbit]

Declaration of 5-Day Office Work Policy
Remote Work Expert Predicts "30% Increase in Resignation Rate"
Attention on Whether Other Big Tech Companies, Hesitant Until Now, Will Follow

Editor's Note[Jjinbit] is a shortened form of 'Jung Hyunjin's Business Trend' and 'Real Business Trend,' a segment that showcases trends in changes in work.

"Before the pandemic, remote work was not taken for granted. It will not be so in the future either."

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, recently made a surprising announcement that shook the world. He declared that starting January next year, remote work will be completely eliminated. While most big tech companies maintain a hybrid work system (combining remote work and office attendance), Amazon is the first to announce a policy requiring five days a week in-office attendance. He emphasized that "looking back over the past five years, I believe there are many advantages to working together in the office," highlighting benefits for collaboration, brainstorming, and invention.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

On the following day of the announcement, the 17th (local time), Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economics professor who has studied remote work for 20 years, predicted on his social media a scenario of what will happen at Amazon within the next year. Based on recent research findings, he forecasted that Amazon's turnover rate will rise to around 30%. Due to the sharp increase in resignations, he expected that by mid-next year, Amazon might quietly retract its decision to require five days a week in-office attendance. He added that in the end, it would become a 'storm in a teacup' after one year.

In the United States, the battle between employers and employees over returning to the office has been ongoing since early last year. Coupled with the economic situation, the power has shifted more from employees to employers, intensifying the conflict. The U.S. online media Axios evaluated Amazon's decision as a "sign that employers have regained influence over workers." Because Amazon, a representative big tech company, has made a significant decision, there is speculation that other companies will follow suit. For employers who have already wanted to bring employees back to the office, this provides a justification.

The United States is the country where remote work has been most activated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to WFH Research, a nonprofit research organization that conducts monthly surveys, about 29% of workers in the U.S. are working fully remotely. With hybrid work becoming widespread, it is said that only one in three American workers go to the office five days a week. There are also statistics showing that office occupancy rates nationwide remain at about half compared to pre-pandemic levels due to reduced office demand.

Resistance from workers who have adapted to this environment was an expected step. On Amazon's internal messenger, criticism appeared mocking CEO Jassy's phrase "going back" to the old state by calling it "going backwards." One employee posted, "Where did the words about striving to be the best employer on Earth go?" This is a typical pattern in the ongoing office return battles experienced so far.

What deserves attention now is how much ripple effect Amazon's decision will have on the global way of working. Returning completely to the previous work style after a major transformation triggered by COVID-19 is essentially like conducting a new experiment. Will it be a regression or a setback? There is keen interest in where the results of this experiment will lead.