Asger Risom
Amazon’s return-to-office strategy is entering a more controversial phase, as managers gain access to detailed data showing how long individual employees spend inside company offices. Critics say the expanded tracking risks eroding trust and turning collaboration into constant surveillance.
Amazon has rolled out a new internal dashboard that allows managers to closely monitor employees’ in-office behavior, including how often they badge in, how long they stay, and which buildings they use. While the company frames the move as a way to support collaboration, the level of individual tracking has raised concerns about privacy, autonomy, and how far employers should go to police attendance.
The tool marks a clear escalation in Amazon’s already strict return-to-office policy, which requires most corporate employees to work from the office five days a week. With the new system, managers can now quickly identify workers who fall short of those expectations — and potentially take action.
How Amazon’s new tracking works
According to internal documents, the dashboard began rolling out in December and refreshes daily. It tracks badge-swipe data over a rolling eight-week period, giving managers and HR detailed visibility into individual attendance patterns.
Employees are grouped into several categories, including those who spend fewer than four hours per day in the office on average, those who do not badge into any Amazon building at all, and those who frequently work from offices other than their assigned location. Previously, managers often had to request this information from HR; now it is available on demand.
Amazon says managers are expected to use judgment when reviewing the data, but the system is explicitly designed to flag employees operating outside documented in-office expectations.
Why employees and critics are uneasy
The expanded tracking has reignited debate over whether measuring physical presence so precisely actually improves productivity. Critics argue that systems like this prioritize optics over outcomes, encouraging workers to stay in the office longer regardless of whether that time is spent collaborating meaningfully.
Amazon has already faced internal criticism over “coffee badging,” where employees briefly showed up to meet attendance requirements. Opponents of the new dashboard say it could intensify pressure on workers with caregiving responsibilities, health conditions, or long commutes, while fostering a culture of monitoring rather than trust.
Although Amazon emphasizes that the tool is meant to promote in-person teamwork, employees worry that detailed attendance data could eventually feed into performance evaluations or disciplinary processes, even if that is not its stated purpose.
Part of a broader return-to-office crackdown
Amazon is not alone in using badge data to enforce office attendance. Companies including Samsung, Dell, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and PwC have introduced similar systems, some of which explicitly tie attendance to compensation or job security.
As more firms push employees back into offices, Amazon’s approach highlights a growing tension in modern workplaces: whether technology should empower employees or quietly surveil them. For critics, the concern is that once granular tracking becomes normal, the boundary between collaboration and control becomes increasingly difficult to defend.
Sources: Business Insider, internal Amazon documents, Amazon statements
