Read the letter sent to AWS CEO Matt Garman, signed by 500 employees, protesting his RTO comments

• AWS CEO Matt Garman has been sent a letter from employees protesting his pro-RTO comments.
• Garman had said most employees he's spoken to are "excited" about a five-day office return.

Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman is facing backlash from some employees over his comments about its return-to-office policy, according to an open letter obtained by Business Insider.

Over 500 employees signed a letter sent to the AWS chief on Wednesday, criticizing his recent remarks about Amazon's mandate to return to the office five days a week, which is up from its previous policy of three days a week.

The letter "urges" Garman to reconsider his position on the RTO mandate. It comes after Garman told staffers during an all-hands meeting earlier this month that nine out of 10 employees he's spoken to are excited to return to the office full time.

Garman addressed the policy, announced in September, for the first time in the all-hands meeting, saying, "There are other companies around" for any employee who doesn't wish to abide by the new policy, according to a transcript of the meeting reviewed by BI. He added that he didn't mean it in a "bad way."

Some employees aren't buying Garman's comments that most people he had spoken to are "actually quite excited by this change," a copy of the letter and internal Slack messages viewed by BI shows.

The letter states, "By rigidly mandating a 5-day in-office culture and telling employees who cannot or will not contribute to the company's mission in this specific way that 'there are other companies around,' you are silencing critical perspectives and damaging our future in doing so."

Garman also said in the all-hands meeting that he hasn't seen people's ability to "really innovate" when they are not working together in person. The letter says his comments do "not align with the experiences of many employees."

One staffer wrote on an Amazon Slack channel, in messages viewed by BI, "This statement from Matt doesn't ring true with me or our teams."

Another staffer joked that Garman "ambushed- er spontaneously approached random AWS engineers" at the company's headquarters to come to the consensus that most employees he's spoken to are excited by the RTO mandate.

Garman's remarks came after Amazon said in September it would require employees to work from the office every day beginning next year. The policy is stricter than at Amazon's peer companies and, by some accounts, stricter than Amazon's office work policy before the pandemic. Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy, in a memo announcing the new mandate, said that the company had made the decision to "further strengthen" its culture and teams.

Amazon had 1.5 million employees in 2023, most of whom work in warehouses. There are more than 30,000 employees in the internal Slack channel where the letter originated. The letter has been signed by 523 staff from Amazon and AWS, with 172 of those including their names.

In response to a request for comment about the letter, Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan told BI the company is offering resources to employees depending on their location, including elder care, pet sitters, caregiver referral services, and commuter benefits.

Read a full copy of the open letter below:

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