More than 500 Amazon employees sent a letter to the CEO of the AWS unit on Wednesday calling for the repeal of a full return-to-the-office policy and rejecting his claim that the rule has broad support and opponents of Amazon You should leave Web Services.

“We were appalled by the non-data-based explanation you gave for Amazon imposing a five-day mandate,” the letter begins.

AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a cloud computing division plenary meeting on Oct. 17 that nine out of 10 workers he spoke with supported the return-to-office policy, which is set to take effect early next year .

These comments were “contrary to the experiences of many employees” and “misrepresented the reality of working at Amazon,” said the letter, which Reuters reviewed after it was sent to Garman.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company offers commuter benefits, elder care and subsidized parking, among other things, to make working in the office easier.

Garman had said he was “very excited about this change” and that collaboration under the current three-day week policy was too difficult because employees might be in the offices on different days.

The company-wide policy, announced in September by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, ​​has been controversial within Amazon. Many call it wasteful because it increases commute time and costs when remote work has been effective. Some say they plan to leave the company. Amazon enforced the policy by asking many workers to contact regional offices, move to Seattle or “voluntarily resign.”

Garman’s comments do not reflect independent data, the letter says, and “break the trust of your employees who not only have personal experiences demonstrating the benefits of remote work, but also the extensive data supporting those experiences.”

The requirement to spend five days in the office each week also particularly impacts protected groups of workers, such as those with neurodiversity or child care responsibilities, and “does not uphold Amazon’s leadership principle of Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer,” it says the writing.

Attached to the letter were anonymous stories from a dozen Amazon employees who said adhering to a five-day rule in the office was difficult or impossible due to family commitments, commute times or medical needs, among other reasons.

One said the nearest office was four hours away; another said her wife was forced to quit her job to accommodate a cross-country move; and another said they were more efficient when working from home.

“I used to be proud of my work and excited about my future here,” said one. “I don’t feel it anymore.”

The letter was linked to a 2020 blog post in which Garman wrote that AWS was running effectively at the start of the pandemic, when most employees were working remotely.

Amazon is taking a stricter approach to returning to the office than many of its tech rivals, which are enforcing two- and three-day policies. The company said the policy helped workers “invent, collaborate and connect,” and Garman said “we didn’t really accomplish anything under the three-day policy.”