Aussie tech giant Atlassian offers Amazon workers jobs after they are ordered to return to the office

Sydney-based global tech company Atlassian has lashed Amazon for ordering its workers to return to the office, and suggested they may want to join its team instead.

Amazon earlier this month informed its employees they would need to return full-time to the office as of January next year.

On September 16, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent a message to Amazon employees, saying he hoped a return to the office would assist in “strengthening our culture and teams” by putting an end to the hybrid work culture that had been in place since the pandemic.

“To deliver the absolute best for customers and the business, we’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID,” Jassy said in the staff message

“We understand that some of our teammates may have set up their personal lives in such a way that returning to the office consistently five days per week will require some adjustments.”

Jassy gave employees until January 2 to sort out arrangements that allowed them to be back in the office permanently.

But Alassian Team Anywhere head Annie Dean was sceptical about the reasons cited for the edict.

“Office attendance does not fix fake work,” Dean told The Australian.

Dean said Amazon was going back to “the old way” in order to fix possible issues within the company.

Sydney-based work futurist for Atlassian, Dominic Price, also weighed in on the announcement in a LinkedIn post, saying he had personally benefited from a hybrid work culture and taking the not-so-subtle opportunity to offer a job to Amazon employees who had been forced back into the office.

“I’ve decided I’m not going to hate on companies that mandate RTO (return to office),” Price said.

“If that’s the employee value proposition that they think works for the majority of their people, stakeholders, customers, and shareholders, then that’s their job as a leader.”

Price said it was important that a company “communicate with transparency” and was “fair to their people” when it came to the decision to end hybrid work culture.

“Companies tend to make decisions for the majority, and not everyone,” he said.

“So if you’re somewhere and there’s been a mandate that demonstrably changes your life (for the worse), then I’d love to let you know that Atlassian is hiring.”

He said the company had more than 300 positions open across the world.

Price said that he appreciated that he gets to “thrive at work and life”, and that he can both “achieve my goals, and be a good dad”.

“I can knock a project out of the park, and be home for dinner,” he said.

The post sparked an online debate, both for and against working at home, with one marketing adviser weighing in to say that working from home could be “unproductive” for some people while others might appreciate having an office to attend.

“The fact is some people really are unproductive working from home, or don’t have the privilege to have the space to do so, and having an office they can go into five days a week and work with others who want that (is beneficial).”

Another person, working for a remote consultancy firm, said they agreed with Price, saying their company “believes in trusting its people to get the work done and being mature about harmonising work and life.”

As of late 2023, 37 per cent of Australian employees were regularly working from home, according to data from the ABS.

That number was down from about 40 per cent in 2021, but was still higher than pre-pandemic levels.

In August, NSW public service employees were directed by Premier Chris Minns to return to the office five days a week.

Banks such as Commonwealth, Westpac and NAB have also told employees to return to the office for a minimum number of days each week.