Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says inventing and 'riffing' on ideas is easier if staff are back in the office

• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said inventing is "easier" when staff are working in the office.
• "The energy and riffing on one another's ideas happen more freely" than from home, he said.
• Staff must work three days a week in the office from May, but some buildings won't be ready then.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said inventing is "often messy" and "easier" when staff are not working from home after telling employees to return to the office three days a week.

He said it's more efficient to create and collaborate when workers are together in person, and that "serendipitous interactions" help innovation.

Jassy, who succeeded Jeff Bezos as CEO in July 2021, also said that working from home was not "the best long-term approach" in a letter to shareholders Thursday.

"The energy and riffing on one another's ideas happen more freely, and many of the best Amazon inventions have had their breakthrough moments from people staying behind after a meeting and working through ideas on a whiteboard, or continuing the conversation on the walk back from a meeting, or just popping by a teammate's office later that day with another thought," he wrote.

The e-commerce giant told employees in February they'd be required to work from the office three days a week from May after it announced 18,000 job cuts the previous month. A further 9,000 layoffs were announced in March.

An internal memo obtained by Insider's Eugene Kim this week indicated that some of Amazon's office space won't be ready until September.

According to the memo, titled "Building Readiness Dates", says five out of Amazon's six corporate offices in New York, as well as four out of six Austin offices, will not be ready to occupy until September 1. This suggests that Amazon's return-to-office mandate may have been sped up.

Amazon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.