Amazon is the most recent corporation to resume having employees work three days each week

Starting on May 1st, Amazon employees will be required to work at least three days a week from the office, according to an email from CEO Andy Jassy to staff that was shared on the corporate site. Previously, the internal policies of each team were up for discussion.

According to Jassy, the company’s leadership team changed the policy after realizing that it’s simpler to develop Amazon’s culture, work together on ideas, and absorb information from others in person. He admits that some roles will be exempt from the rule, such as some salespeople and customer service representatives, but says “that will be a small percentage.”

We’re going to give the teams that have to perform that task some time to plan because it’s not easy to bring thousands of employees back to our locations around the world, explains Jassy. We are aware that it won’t be perfect right away, but as our real estate and facilities teams iron out the kinks and eventually keep growing how we’d like our offices to be set up to capture the innovative methods we want to work, the office experience will steadily get better over the coming months (and years).

Amazon is joining businesses like Apple and Starbucks that have already switched to a three-day workweek. Disney will start requiring four days in the office starting in March, while Walmart’s technical personnel will need to go to work twice a week.