Amazon Intensifies Office Attendance Monitoring to Curb 'Coffee Punch-In' and Enforces Return-to-Office Policy

TapTechNews July 17th news, Amazon has recently intensified the monitoring of employees' office attendance, aiming to crack down on those trying to bypass the company's return-to-office policy. According to BusinessInsider, multiple informed sources disclosed that several departments of Amazon, including retail and cloud computing, have recently been informed that at least two hours in the office each time is considered a valid punch-in, and some teams are even required to stay for at least six hours each time.

Amazon's move is intended to combat the so-called coffee punch-in, where employees briefly enter the office to punch in, grab a cup of coffee, and then quickly leave to meet the company's return-to-office requirement. Last year, Amazon began to require most corporate employees to come to the office at least three days a week, but at that time, there was no specified minimum duration in the office each time.

This initiative is the latest progress in Amazon's long-term effort to get employees back to the office. Since announcing the return-to-office plan early last year, Amazon has faced strong opposition from employees, about 30,000 employees signed an internal petition against the policy. Amazon then increased the pressure, forced some employees to relocate near the team, and prevented non-compliant employees from getting promoted. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy even warned non-compliant employees to leave the company.

Amazon spokeswoman Margaret Callahan said in an email that the company has started to directly talk to employees who don't spend enough time in the office.

Callahan said: A year ago, we required employees to come to the office at least three days a week because we believe this will bring the best long-term results for our customers, business, and culture. It turns out that this is indeed the case. Most employees come to the office more frequently, and the working atmosphere, connection, and collaboration have all improved. We have heard such feedback from both employees and businesses around the office. Now a year has passed, and we have started to directly talk to those employees who do not regularly spend a significant amount of time in the office to ensure they understand the importance of spending quality time with colleagues.

However, Amazon employees are complaining loudly about this new regulation, believing it is an unreasonable and confusingly strict policy. Some people question whether punching in for two hours during lunchtime counts as working time, and others have doubts about how to track working hours and whether it is legal. There are also those who say that Amazon's motivation for doing this is not clear as the company has never officially announced or explained the reason.

It's all so opaque and maddening, one employee wrote on Slack.

Some employees even responded in a joking tone, believing that employees will eventually find a way around the regulations. Some warned that employees who don't follow the office work policy may be fired. Others wrote that if the company treats employees like high school students, employees will act like high school students.

TapTechNews noted that not only Amazon is facing the coffee punch-in problem. A survey by video conferencing company OwlLabs last year showed that 58% of hybrid office employees admitted to having had a coffee punch-in behavior.

More and more companies are beginning to take action and enforce the return-to-work policy. A survey by WFHResearch in July this year found that manage rs have become stricter in implementing the return-to-office policy. In February 2024, 23% of respondents said that non-compliant employees faced dismissal, higher than 11% in 2022. About 17% of respondents said their employers did not punish violators, far lower than 34% in 2022.