Amazon (AMZN) Web Services chief Matt Garman doubled down on Amazon’s new five-day work week and told disgruntled employees they can find work elsewhere.
Garman, one of the company’s top executives, told employees at an all-employee meeting on Thursday that if they don’t like the new policy they can quit, according to a transcript of the meeting first reported by Reuters.
“If there are people who just don’t work well in that environment and don’t want to, that’s not a problem, there are other businesses around,” Garman said.
“At Amazon, we want to be in a collaborative environment, and we believe the collaborative environment is incredibly important to our innovation and to our culture,” he added.
That echoes similar comments from executives at other major companies, who have labeled remote work an innovation and collaboration killer. In August, former Google (GOOGL) CEO Eric Schmidt blamed remote work for the tech giant losing its lead in the artificial intelligence race. He later walked back the comments.
Other companies that have ditched remote and hybrid policies in recent years include JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Tesla (TSLA), and Walmart.
The tech giant announced the changes to office policies last month, and employees will have to ditch their remote working arrangements completely from January 2. CEO Andy Jassy said at the time that he believes the move will better enable Amazon “to invent, collaborate, and connect enough with each other and our culture to deliver the very best for customers and the company.”
In turn, employees of the tech giant called the decision “unfortunate” and “disheartening” on social media and internal message boards. Many were frustrated, calling the move a step backwards and expressing concern about the impact it would have on their work-life balance.
Previous reports indicated that Amazon monitored how many employees came into the office and sent messages to delinquent employees.
However, Garman said at Thursday’s meeting that “nine out of 10 people are actually pretty excited about this change.” He added that in the era of hybrid work, there were days when his team “wasn’t really accomplishing anything” because team members were working remotely.
Although executives have banned remote work, the evidence on its impact on productivity is mixed: Some studies have found that working from home can increase productivity – by as much as 24% in fact – while others say the opposite.
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