Hi to all you English learners! We hope you are doing well. Fall is now here, and although it is still a bit hot in Japan, we hope cooler weather is coming soon. Hang in there, everybody!
Today, we are going to discuss one of the biggest companies in the world: Amazon. In 2023, the company made $30.4 billion in net income, which is more than the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of countries like Iceland and Jamaica.
Recently, Amazon made a big decision with regards to their working style. Starting in 2025, the majority of employees must go back to the office 5 days a week. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company allowed its employees to work from home and even promised to offer this new working style on a permanent basis.
However, Amazon noticed that productivity was decreasing due to the new remote work policy. Therefore, last year, they asked that workers return to the office 3 days a week to see what would happen. This change worked very well for the company and saw a great improvement in the amount of tasks accomplished. As a result, Amazon decided to go even further and require people to come to the office 5 days a week from the beginning of next year to increase productivity.
Many Amazon employees are not happy about the big changes that the company has made in the last few years. For example, since the beginning of 2023, around 27,000 have been cut, and due to the company rule to return to the office, many workers have had to move to a different city and/or dramatically change their lives in order to keep their jobs.
What do you think about this issue? Is Amazon doing the right thing? Let’s talk about this and other issues related to remote working the next time you come to BRIDGE. Take care!
