Audible is following Amazon’s strict new RTO policy, but with a delay

Amazon’s Audible CEO Bob Carrigan

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Employees at Amazon subsidiary Audible have a different deadline to comply with the new RTO policy.Amazon corporate employees must return to the office 5 days a week starting in January.Amazon’s varied RTO timelines highlight challenges in standardizing policies across its businesses.

Amazon’s corporate employees must be in the office 5 times a week starting in January. Those at Amazon-subsidiary Audible have longer to comply.

Audible CEO Bob Carrigan told employees in an email last week that the company will start the 5-day RTO policy on April 2, 2025, in part due to the additional space the company is making available in its Newark office. Employees who wish to come in 3 times a week can do so earlier, as Audible expects to have enough office space to accommodate them by January, he added.

Audible has a minimum 2 day per week RTO policy in place now.

“With this additional capacity in Newark and ongoing improvements across our hubs globally, Audible will be ready effective April 2, 2025 to welcome all employees globally back to their respective hubs in accordance with our pre-pandemic, in-office policy,” Carrigan wrote in the email, a copy of which was obtained by Business Insider.

“While we are mandating April 2nd for employees to return to the office 5 days per week, we will be able to accommodate employees who would like to start coming back to their hubs at least 3 days per week as of January 2, 2025 as we ramp up to our pre-pandemic ways of working, and as we increase in-person collaboration on our numerous critical initiatives,” Carrigan added.

Amazon’s spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment. Audible’s spokesperson didn’t provide a comment.

The different RTO timelines show the difficulty of rolling out a strict, uniform policy across Amazon’s sprawling business empire. The company has at least 1.5 million employees working in sectors as varied as retail, logistics, warehousing, cloud computing, satellites, video and music streaming.

One Medical, for example, is beginning the full-week RTO in October 2025, roughly 9 months after Amazon corporate employees are required to start.

Amazon has been dealing with contentious workforce issues for years. Its aggressive RTO policy is the latest flashpoint. For over a year, Amazon employees have voiced their frustration over RTO. Last week’s announcement to require 5 days in the office starting in January caused an internal Slack channel to be “burning” with so many comments and reactions.

Amazon acquired Audible, which provides audiobooks and podcasts, for roughly $300 million in 2008. The company has largely run as a separate entity, but Amazon has been tightening its grip. In January, Audible laid off 5% of its employees, and Carrigan declined to say whether job cuts were over, instead warning about the “storms that are coming ahead,” such as Shopify’s new audiobook business.

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