Telework is almost over. At least at Amazon. After having already required a presence of three days per week in February 2023, CEO Andy Jassy announced on September 16 to the employees of the technology giant that they would no longer be allowed to work remotely. This full-time return to the office, planned for January 2, 2025, aims, according to the firm, to ensure that employees are “better prepared to invent, collaborate and be sufficiently connected to each other”. The measure, which only concerns Amazon’s administrative services and its approximately 300,000 employees, has been widely commented on in the United States. But also on this side of the Atlantic, where some companies are also tempted to return, at least in part, to telework. If you’re one of those worried about a widespread return to the office in the coming years, rest assured, Prithwiraj Choudhury, a professor at Harvard Business School and an expert on remote work and its effects on productivity, is convinced that remote work is here to stay: “The world is not ready to go back to 2019.” Interview.
L’Express: Were you surprised by Andy Jassy’s announcement?
Prithwiraj Choudhury: I was not surprised because I am an academic and not a journalist. (laughs). I always approach this kind of information as just another piece of data. Because alongside Amazon’s decision to return to remote work, we also see large companies like Dropbox or Glassdoor doubling down on remote work and closing their last offices in the United States. Or, recently, the new CEO of Starbucks Brian Niccol who obtained the right to work from California, where he lives, while the company’s headquarters are in Seattle. So, when you read the press, you see things that go both ways when it comes to remote work. Faced with this, my approach is to remain cautious and try to understand why the trend is moving in a given direction. In this case, I have been studying the issue of remote work closely for ten years. And let me tell you one thing: the world is not going back.
In an article published in the Wall Street Journalyou called Andy Jassy’s announcement “regressive leadership”. Why?
For the simple reason that the world has changed. Since the pandemic, we have all discovered hybrid work. Work norms and practices have changed. We have been practicing hybrid work in a stable way for five years. And it has become very popular. So I don’t think it makes sense to go back to 2019. On the contrary, we should move forward and try to further improve hybrid work, which for companies is also a way to attract talent. So, in the old world, if a company was based in Paris, it needed all its employees to live in the Paris region. With hybrid work, you can recruit employees based in Lyon, Nice or other regions of France and even maybe in London, and only bring the teams together in person once a month if you decide. In addition, from a diversity point of view, because of the flexibility it allows, hybrid work is an advantage for mothers.
“The very definition of the office is changing”
According to economics professor Nicholas Bloom, such a decision will necessarily lead to a surge in resignations at Amazon…
I agree. Some of their best employees will eventually leave. They will be poached by other competitors who are willing to offer them more flexible work practices. After this announcement, we can expect two other things. First, the implementation of this decision on the ground is going to be chaotic. Amazon has left the door open by saying that there will be exceptions. And it is not impossible that the exceptions will become the rule. The second thing is compliance. When you tell your employees that they have to come to the office for five days, how do you monitor that? And what is the consequence if I only come for three days? Are you going to fire me? It is not clear.
Why do you think some tech companies in particular are backtracking on remote work? Amazon justified its decision by explaining that when employees are on-site, “teams tend to be better connected to each other.”
Amazon is a big company, but it’s just one company. We live in a world where hybrid work is firmly and permanently entrenched. I looked closely at several data sources, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Stanford research team that collected data on a global scale from Flex Index (a database on flexible work policies, editor’s note). What do they tell us? Over the last 20 months, the percentage of days worked remotely has been around 30%. That’s a very stable number. That tells me that companies are going to continue to use hybrid work. Because employees want flexibility and managers have already integrated that need. The main question now is how to make it more effective.
How to do it?
There are good and bad versions of hybrid work. For example, let’s say you and I are on the same team and the company mandates that we work in person for two days. But you and I choose two different days to come into the office. You come in on Monday and Tuesday, and I come in on Thursday and Friday. That means we never see each other. The purpose of those two days in the office that management set is nullified. So if you come into the office but none of your direct reports are there, that’s not helpful at all. The solution to this problem, and one that I’ve long advocated for, is to let the teams decide. Not the company. It’s up to each team to agree on when and where to meet. And the traditional downtown office is just one place where teams can meet. Because the very definition of the office is changing.
How so ?
Let’s say a team is going to a conference together. They can stay an extra day or two and have meetings there. Or, if it works for your colleagues, you can meet in the suburbs instead of driving into the city and commuting for an hour. The best solution for hybrid working is for the company to make recommendations, and then let the team decide where and how often. Should we meet weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or quarterly? As I said, the most important thing for building strong professional relationships is for the whole team to be there on those days.
According to research, is there a perfect hybrid work model?
My research has shown that 25% of the time should be in person. But that 25% can mean different things for different teams. For some, it could mean one day a week. It could mean two days. And that 25% doesn’t have to be every week. It could be two days a fortnight, or it could be a full week a month. 25% is simply the optimal solution. I don’t think 100% remote work is good either.
Do you see a difference in trends between the United States and Europe?
Employees worldwide consider flexibility to be the second most attractive criterion for a job, after salary. They are even willing to give up 5-7% of their salary to have the opportunity to work remotely or in a hybrid manner. This is a global phenomenon. I don’t think there are any exceptions.
.