ARLINGTON, Va. (DC News Now) — Change is coming to National Landing following an announcement from Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, on Monday.
“If anything, the last 15 months we’ve been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits,” Jassy said in a message to employees.
The company is returning to its pre-pandemic policy, which will require corporate employees to be in the office five days a week.
The new policy starts in January, and it will also impact the 8,000 employees working at Amazon’s HQ2, unless they have a remote work exception approved.
Workers at Peruvian Brothers are looking forward to the changes.
“Monday, I think it’s less people because I think most of the Amazon workers they work from home,” said manager Andres Alcala. “Maybe we need to look [for] more people to work on Mondays, if that happens, that’s really good for the business.”
Executive Chef, Demetrias Ellis, who works at 15th and Eads, also believes the change could be beneficial.
“I guess when everyone gets back to work, then we’ll start noticing a difference around here honestly, but yeah it’s good for the area,” Ellis said.
In 2023, Seattle workers staged protests when Amazon started phasing in their return to the office mandate. There were no protests at HQ2 in Arlington.
Tracy Sayegh Gabriel, President and Executive Director of the National Landing Business Improvement District released the following statement on the changes coming to HQ2:
“Amazon selected National Landing as the location for its second headquarters because of the area’s incredible infrastructure and accessibility for its growing team and we have already seen increased foot traffic in the neighborhood in the last year. National Landing’s long-standing planning history makes it possible to accommodate future growth of both residents and workers and it’s already emerging as one of the fastest-growing districts in the region. With robust retail, food and beverage options, along with vibrant community programming at Metropolitan Park and more than $4 billion in transit enhancements, National Landing is ready for Amazon and other corporations to grow their presence in our innovation hub.”
