Can Amazon’s back-to-office announcement mean layoffs are coming? Singaporeans weigh in

SINGAPORE: Amazon recently announced an end to the hybrid scheme it implemented for its workers across the globe during the pandemic.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced on Monday (Sept 16) that by Jan 2, 2025, its employees will be required to return onsite five days a week.

“We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID,” he wrote, adding that this will allow employees to be “better set up to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other and our culture.”

For the past 15 months, Amazon’s workers have been coming to the office three times a week.

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Employees with a Remote Work Exception need not be physically present at work.

In Singapore, this news did not appear to be welcome, according to a CNA report.

One said that while they had a feeling this would happen eventually, given the trend of remote work around the world, they did not think the tech giant would push through with it.

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The report noted that there are over 2,000 workers in Amazon’s various business units across the city-state.

Many of those who spoke to CNA were unhappy with the prospect of going to work five days a week. The report underlined that some Amazon employees will need to make significant adjustments to their lifestyles to go to work every weekday.

Some Reddit users who weighed in on the matter had a different take, however.

One appeared to take it as a sign that there’s a “soft layoff incoming”, adding that the same happened to Sea group previously.

In 2022, Shopee, a subsidiary of Sea Limited, conducted three rounds of layoffs.

As the company has operations in Singapore, Shopee workers were affected.

Another Reddit user agreed, saying that Amazon seemed to be following a standard pattern. They also guessed remote work options would be reinstated after enough people quit their jobs.

A commenter also called it a “passive “ or “soft layoff”, an action that would naturally reduce Amazon’s headcount in the city-state. /TISG

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