Amazon cloud boss says employees unhappy with 5-day office mandate can leave

Amazon's cloud boss on Thursday gave employees a frank message about the company's recently announced five-day in-office mandate.

Staffers who don't agree with Amazon's new policy can leave, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said during an all-hands meeting at the company's second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

"If there are people who just don't work well in that environment and don't want to, that's OK, there are other companies around," Garman said, according to a transcript viewed by CNBC. "At Amazon, we want to be in an environment where we are working together, and we feel that collaborative environment is incredibly important for our innovation and for our culture."

Amazon has observed that working in-office helps teams be more collaborative and effective, a company spokesperson told CNBC.

Garman's comments were reported earlier by Reuters.

Amazon announced the new mandate last month. The company's previous return-to-work stance required corporate workers to be in office at least three days a week. Employees have until Jan. 2 to adhere to the new policy.

The company is forgoing its pandemic-era remote work policies as it looks to keep up with rivals Microsoft, OpenAI and Google in the race to develop generative artificial intelligence. It's one of the primary tasks in front of Garman, who took over AWS in June after his predecessor Adam Selipsky stepped down from the role.

The move has spurred backlash from some Amazon employees who say they're just as productive working from home or in a hybrid work environment as they are in an office. Others say the mandate puts extra strain on families and caregivers.

Roughly 37,000 employees have joined an internal Slack channel created last year to advocate for remote work