Amazon has rolled out a new manager-facing dashboard tracking employee office attendance and hours spent on-site, intensifying enforcement of its return-to-office mandate.
Amazon has implemented a new internal tool that gives managers detailed visibility into employee office attendance patterns, according to internal documents obtained by Business Insider. The dashboard tracks compliance with Amazon's return-to-office (RTO) mandate by monitoring badge-swipe data and calculating hours spent in corporate offices.
The system aggregates building access records to show managers which employees are meeting the company's requirement of being physically present at least three days per week. It displays metrics including weekly office attendance rates, total hours logged on-site, and adherence patterns over time. Managers can filter views by team, department, or individual employee.
Implementation Context
This rollout follows Amazon's strict RTO policy announcement in 2025, which mandated corporate employees return to physical offices after years of remote work flexibility during the pandemic. The company had previously warned managers to enforce compliance through performance improvement plans, but until now lacked centralized tools for systematic tracking.
Technical Operation
According to the documentation, the dashboard pulls data from:
- Building access systems (badge readers)
- VPN connection logs
- Internal calendar systems
It calculates 'office hours' based on time between first and last badge swipe per day, with adjustments for lunch breaks inferred from calendar gaps. The system flags employees falling below the 3-day weekly threshold and provides trend analysis showing compliance patterns over 30, 60, and 90-day windows.
Practical Limitations
Several operational constraints emerged:
- Location Granularity: The system can't distinguish between productive work time and physical presence (e.g., employees swiping in but leaving early)
- Hybrid Work Nuances: Doesn't accommodate approved remote work exceptions or differentiate between office locations
- Data Lag: Attendance data updates with a 24-hour delay
- Privacy Controls: Individual contributors can't view their own dashboard metrics - only managers and HR have access
Employee Impact
The tool has intensified existing tensions around RTO enforcement. Multiple Amazon employees speaking anonymously noted increased manager scrutiny of commute patterns and work schedules since the dashboard's deployment. This aligns with broader industry concerns about workplace surveillance tools potentially undermining trust.
Industry Context
Amazon joins companies like Google, JPMorgan, and Salesforce in deploying RTO compliance tools, though Amazon's approach stands out for its manager-facing design and integration of multiple data sources. Unlike pure badge-tracking systems, Amazon's dashboard incorporates calendar data to infer activity patterns.
Unanswered Questions
The documentation doesn't clarify:
- How data retention periods work
- Whether metrics directly impact performance reviews
- How false positives (e.g., forgotten badge swipes) are handled
- Compliance with EU GDPR and California privacy regulations
As RTO debates continue across the tech sector, Amazon's tool represents a significant escalation in enforcement capability. The long-term impact on employee morale and productivity remains uncertain as organizations balance operational oversight with workplace culture concerns.
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