Amazon’s new phone use rule amid BIG reset plan: ‘$50 monthly…’

Amazon is now monitoring how employees use their company-issued phones for work-related purposes. Under CEO Andy Jassy, the company is returning to a “hardcore mindset,” Business Insider reported.

At Amazon Web Services (AWS), some employees now report what percentage of their phone use is work-related, with the $50 monthly reimbursement adjusted proportionally. This is just one of several changes Amazon has introduced as part of an internal reset.

Amazon’s ‘375’ changes

In the past year, Amazon slashed layers of management, increasing worker-to-manager ratios by 15%, Business Insider reported.

The company also has updated performance metrics and pay structures, and the majority of corporate employees are back in the office five days a week.

Amazon also revamped its compensation system to reward high performers more directly. The new structure puts greater emphasis on an employee’s performance history, with those earning top marks for four consecutive years now eligible for pay increases that exceed the standard compensation bands.

Moreover, an internal document created by Amazon’s recruiting team and obtained by Business Insider noted that the rigid RTO mandate and the company’s unique pay model are making it harder to recruit “high demand” talent.

Andy Jassy, who replaced Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2021 and became Amazon’s second-ever CEO, has reportedly created a “bureaucracy mailbox” to which employees are encouraged to flag unnecessary processes or rules that could be streamlined or eliminated.

According to the report, Amazon says the initiative has already led to 375 changes. The reset is about getting Amazon back to what made it so successful in the first place.

‘Commit to higher standard’

A glimpse into Amazon’s “more disciplined, hardcore culture came” in July, when an Amazon advertising director sent senior managers a sharply worded email titled “Raising Our Leadership Standard.”

The company wanted to see “higher productivity” and “more competitive leadership roles,” he wrote, according to the email obtained by Business Insider.

“I need every leader on this team to step into the arena and commit to this higher standard. If they can’t or won’t, I need them to leave ASAP,” the official had written in the mail.