Exclusive survey: In response to Amazon’s RTO policy, nearly half its office workers are looking for new jobs

Amazon’s new in-office mandate takes effect in January. But the Strategic Organizing Center’s survey of more than 1,000 corporate employees indicates that many may already be out the door.

In September, Amazon made an announcement that came as a surprise to many corporate employees, along with tech observers who might have assumed hybrid work was a given among the industry’s major players. Starting in January, the tech giant would require that all employees come back to the office five days a week, in a rebuke of the hybrid policy that is common across tech.

Many employees were still chafing against the demands of Amazon’s three-day return-to-office mandate, which was implemented in 2023 and had already required that certain workers move closer to an office or resign. The latest iteration of Amazon’s policy, however, goes several steps beyond that—and it already seems to be driving employees to leave the company.