Amazon has implemented a strict return-to-office policy since the pandemic restrictions were lifted, requiring employees to work from the office a few days a week or find another job.
Many Amazon employees have been hesitant to return to the office, preferring to work from home with minimal disruptions. This resistance has led some employees to engage in unauthorized behavior, which the company is now taking steps to address and prevent.
The “coffee badging” trick. Amazon management adopted a strict approach against working from home, going so far as monitoring its employees’ badges to check who goes to the office regularly. To get around this, many employees started using the so-called “coffee badging” trick.
Coffee badging consisted of coming to the office, scanning their badge to register their attendance, socializing with coworkers over coffee, making their presence known in the company’s hallways, and then leaving to finish the workday remotely without any interruptions. In fact, Owl Labs’ “State of Hybrid Work 2023” study reports that 58% of hybrid employees have used the coffee badging trick.
A legal loophole in Amazon's RTO policy. Unhappy with Amazon's return-to-office mandate, employees found a loophole. While the company's policy required employees to be present at least three days a week, it did not specify the amount of time they had spend in the office. As such, employees taking advantag of the loophole were able to fulfill their weekly attendance requirement without spending the entire day at the office.
Amazon has established attendance time limits. Business Insider reports that Amazon is implementing mandatory office attendance requirements for several departments to avoid coffee badging and to force employees to spend a certain amount of time in the office.
The company has informed several teams, such as those in the retail and cloud programming departments, through internal messages on Slack that they must spend a minimum of six hours in the office during each visit.
First warnings. According to Business Insider's sources, Amazon is now directly contacting employees who have used the coffee badging technique to enter the office but have not been spending significant time there.
Margaret Callahan, an Amazon spokeswoman, told the outlet, “Now that it’s been more than a year, we’re starting to speak directly with employees who haven’t regularly been spending meaningful amounts of time in the office to ensure they understand the importance of spending quality time with their colleagues.”
Going back to high school. Employees didn’t hesitate to share their thoughts through the company’s internal Slack channel, accusing Amazon managers of micromanaging their work. According to one internal message seen by Business Insider, an employee stated that the staff will start behaving like teenagers “if [Amazon treats] employees like high school students.”
Employees are frustrated with Amazon’s lack of transparency regarding the decision to return to the office, as the company hasn’t provided any supporting data on how it’ll improve operations. “Remember when we were measured on metrics that actually mattered?” another employee wrote in an internal Slack message.
Hardening the return-to-office plan. Amazon isn’t the only company that has tightened its return-to-office policy in recent months. Tech giants like Dell, Zoom, and Salesforce have intensified their efforts to bring employees back to the office.
The “State of Hybrid Work 2023” study also shows that 94% of employees are willing to return to the office, but 29% would expect a salary increase to compensate for the extra expenses.
This article was written by Rubén Andrés and originally published in Spanish on Xataka.
Image | Bernd Ditrrich, Wikimedia Commons (Lisi Mezistrano Wolf)
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