Amazon gives managers a new way to spot employees who aren't spending enough time in the office

Amazon is rolling out a new dashboard for its managers that significantly enhances how they monitor employee attendance and office hours. According to internal documents acquired by Business Insider, this system will not only track whether employees are physically present in the office but also record how many hours they spend there each day. This initiative is seen as a heightened measure of oversight over Amazon's white-collar workforce. Following the implementation of a strict return-to-office (RTO) policy last year, which mandates that most employees work from the office five days a week, the new tool allows managers to identify and address those who do not meet these expectations. The dashboard, which began its rollout in December, enables management and human resources to access data on employee attendance frequency, duration of stay, and even the specific locations where they work. Updated daily at 5 p.m. PT, the dashboard tracks metrics over an eight-week period, highlighting three categories of employees: "Low-Time Badgers," those averaging fewer than four hours in the office per day; "Zero Badgers," who do not badge into any Amazon facility; and "Unassigned Building Badgers," who frequently access buildings other than their assigned workplace. As stated in the internal document, these metrics are designed to illuminate those who are significantly deviating from expected office attendance. An Amazon spokesperson clarified that the company has been providing tools to assist managers in identifying team members who may need additional support in returning to the office each day. Although the dashboard has been updated for uniformity among managers, much of its data and functionality were already available previously. In 2023, Amazon shifted its approach to tracking attendance by monitoring individual office attendance records, moving away from an earlier strategy that relied solely on anonymized data. The company has faced criticism for its stringent measures, including a crackdown on what some employees have termed "coffee badging," which prohibited short visits for socializing. This updated dashboard is intended to foster collaboration among teams, emphasizing that being in the office is crucial for the company's culture. Managers are encouraged to focus on meaningful team interactions rather than merely tracking badge swipes. Amazon's approach mirrors initiatives by other companies such as Samsung and Dell, which have also implemented monitoring tools to ensure compliance with RTO policies, reflecting a broader trend in corporate America towards stricter attendance regulations.