Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s recent comments on remote work echo the same sentiments that TCS CEO K Krithivasan expressed when the Indian IT giant began phasing out work-from-home policies, with both executives emphasizing that in-person collaboration is essential for company culture and innovation.
Speaking at the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit recently, Jassy explained that Amazon’s return to office mandate stems from the belief that “culture isn’t something that can be instilled from a distance,” mirroring Krithivasan’s assertion that employees cannot be properly mentored on company culture remotely.
“What you find is people riff on top of each other’s ideas better if they’re together,” Jassy said. “Turns out, sometimes it’s actually useful to interrupt each other, because you get to a faster spot, more quickly, you feel that energy.”
The e-commerce giant has implemented a compulsory five-day return to office policy to strengthen company culture, which Jassy believes was being stretched as the company expanded.
Innovation happens in person, both CEOs insist
TCS began enforcing a three-day office mandate in October last year before recently extending it to five days for select teams. Krithivasan had stressed to empl: “We are not a bunch of 600 engineers working on work-to-hire or get paid for the time they spend. We believe working from the office is good for the associates, customers and TCS. You’re talking only about work output in terms of how they deliver to customers, but how do they get mentored on culture?
Similarly, Jassy emphasised that many of Amazon’s inventions emerged from “messy, wandering meetings” that simply can’t happen virtually.
Both executives highlighted mentorship as a key factor in their decisions. Krithivasan asked: “How do they get mentored on how they deal with customers and colleagues, which is very important for their career development?” while Jassy noted that teaching is more effective when managers can provide context after meetings.
Amazon’s office return is part of a larger restructuring that includes flattening the organization by increasing the ratio of individual contributors to managers by 15%.
Amazon recently announced that it is overhauling its compensation model to significantly favor longtime top performers while reducing payouts for first-time high achievers and those with inconsistent performance records. Under the new guidelines, veteran employees with consistent excellence stand to gain substantially more than their newer counterparts. According to internal guidelines obtained by Business Insider, employees who earn Amazon’s “Top Tier” performance rating for four consecutive years will now receive 110% of their pay range, exceeding the previous cap of 100%. Meanwhile, first-time Top Tier recipients will get 70% of their pay band, down from 80% last year.