'We Are a Work-From-Work Company': Leaked Memo Demands Blue Origin Employees Return to Office 5 Days a Week The email was reportedly sent out to all 3,500 employees.
By Emily Rella
Key Takeaways
- A leaked email to Blue Origin employees said that if they have a desk in one of the company's Denver, El Segundo, Woodland Hills, Phoenix, or Reston, Virginia, locations, they are expected to be in the office five days a week.
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The pandemic days of working remotely seem to be dwindling. Several big-name companies, such as Tesla and JPMorgan, have made the decision to move employees back into the office full-time.
Such is the case for Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, which reportedly is asking employees to come back to the office and make the company a "work-from-work company" again.
In a leaked email viewed by Insider, all employees were reminded that if they have a desk in one of the company's Denver, El Segundo, Woodland Hills, Phoenix, or Reston, Virginia, locations, they are expected to be in the office five days a week.
Related: Report: One of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Rocket Engines Exploded During Testing
"Designing and building rockets, engines, and space systems requires hands-on work from our engineers, functional support teams, and more," the email stated. "As more and more employees come back to the office, the excitement and energy for our mission and achieving our goals continues to grow."
The email said that Blue Origin's "desk occupancy rates need to improve" in the five locations but noted that desks in the Seattle, Florida, Texas, and Huntsville, Alabama offices are "at capacity" though the company is trying to work through organizational concerns.
A Blue Origin employee told Insider that the strict, full-time return to office mandate came seemingly out of nowhere, claiming that an internal memo penned by Blue Origin's SVP of Operations Mike Eilola last year indicated that there would be no one-size-fits-all model for employees' return-to-office plans.
"Blue is not implementing a defined hybrid work schedule for all employees because our business requirements, individual situations, and work roles vary dramatically," Eilola's note reportedly read.
Related: Jeff Bezos' Partner Lauren Sanchez Plans to Go to Space in 2023
The strict policy varies from Bezos' Amazon, which requires workers in its corporate offices to be in-office three days a week.
Amazon rolled out its new policy in May, much to the dismay of many of its workers who planned to stage walkouts in protest.
"I'm very optimistic about the positive impact this will have in how we serve and invent on behalf of customers, as well as on the growth and success of our employees," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a company memo at the time.
Blue Origin currently employs 3,500 people.
