Chhavideep SinghAccording to recent reports, Amazon has decided to further delay its return to office policy to January 3, 2022. Earlier, the company had plans to open its offices this September but amid the surge in COVID-19’s Delta variant across the United States, the company has re-evaluated its plans.
Soon after the pandemic began last year, Amazon said that they expected their employees to be back in their offices in October last year but due to multiple waves of the Coronavirus outbreak, the company was forced to close down their offices.
Furthermore, Other major players in the industry including Google and Microsoft also declared their plans for delaying the opening up of offices until October this year.
Both giants, Facebook & Google had similar strategies of needing their employees to be fully vaccinated before returning to their offices and not just that anybody entering their US-based offices needs to be vaccinated whether it be their employees, vendors, or any visitors for that matter. However, Amazon is not seen emphasizing on its employees to be vaccinated before returning to their offices but rather they can return as long as they are wearing masks.
In addition to this, like many other tech companies, Amazon also believes in a hybrid work system due to the pandemic last year, with half of its employees working from home and others being physically present in their offices.
Moreover, Amazon seemed eager for everyone to get back in their offices and said that they believe in office-centric ways of functioning, enabling them to learn, collaborate and invent effectively.
As noted in a report by the Wall Street Journal, An Amazon spokesperson said, they are monitoring the situation closely and are looking to follow local government guidelines, and are working closely with healthcare professionals to seek guidance to have an optimized workplace for their team.
Amazon is well aware that this pandemic has changed the way we work and gone are the days when we used to work side by side with our colleagues, but a study has shown that majority of people now enjoy working from the comfort of their homes and are no longer wanting to go back to their offices and hence, the company is giving their employees a choice to work 2 to 3 days from their homes when the offices reopen next year.
In conclusion, seeing that COVID-19’s delta variant has spread actively across the US, I for one am convinced that this is the right step to take, focusing on the safety of employees.