Amazon sent shockwaves through its ranks — and corporate America — Monday when CEO Andrew Jassy told workers they will be expected to report to the office five days a week starting in January. 

The decision represents one of the most stringent return to office policies from a major corporation since the pandemic, when offices were suddenly shuttered and many employees shifted to remote work. Amazon’s move is also unusual for a business in the tech industry, which has largely embraced remote and hybrid work arrangements. 

Under the company’s current mandate, Amazon workers have been reporting to their physical offices three days a week, although that will expire by the beginning of next year. While advocates of in-office work argue that showing up in person helps foster collaboration and feelings of connectedness, skeptics say Amazon could be imposing the mandate to reduce headcount, as some employees may search for more flexible jobs and depart, without having to lay off workers. 

For his part, Jassy said the move is designed to improve company culture. But Amazon workers are reportedly grousing on internal forums about the move. 

Amazon isn’t alone in reining in remote work. Here are a few of the major employers that have summoned workers back to the office. 

Amazon

CEO Andrew Jassy said the back-to-the-office decision is based on his observation that collaborating and brainstorming work better when people are together in the office.

To foster a culture of collaboration, “we’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID,” Jassy said in a memo to employees posted on Amazon’s website. “When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant.”

Disney 

Disney mandates that employees work in the office four days a week, typically Monday to Thursday. 

“[I]n a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe and create with peers that comes from being physically together, nor the opportunity to grow professionally by learning from leaders and mentors,” CEO Bob Iger said in a 2023 memo to employees. 

JPMorgan

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is a staunch advocate of in-person work, and once blasted remote work as a policy that “does not work for younger people. It doesn’t work for those who want to hustle,” he said at a business forum. He was among the first leaders to summon employees back to the workplace. 

As of April 2023, workers have been reporting to JPMorgan offices at least three times a week. The company is reportedly tracking attendance, too. 

Starbucks

While the coffee giant’s new CEO Brian Niccol will commute to Starbucks’ Seattle headquarters from his Newport Beach, California residence, most other workers likely live in closer proximity to their offices, given that they must be at their desks three days a week. 

Niccol is not exempt from following the mandate, according to the company. 

X 

X owner Elon Musk has consistently opposed remote work, saying he believes workers are more productive when working from a corporate office. 

In 2022, he said all X workers would be expected to report to the office on a full-time basis, and that he would interpret a failure to show up as a resignation from the company. 

Zoom

Even pandemic icon Zoom, one of the companies that benefitted the most from remote work, last summer told workers who live near a company office to report to their desks at least two times a week, a company spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch. 

The mandate applies to its roughly 7,400 workers who live near a Zoom office, the videoconferencing platform said at the time. 

Editor’s note: This story contains highly offensive language. 

Washington — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, posted a slew of incendiary, explicit and racist comments on a pornographic website more than a decade ago, according to a CNN investigation released Thursday that has shaken the state’s gubernatorial race.

The report focused on comments made by an account with the name “minisoldr” on a pornographic website called Nude Africa between 2008 and 2012. The account used the name “mark robinson” in its profile and a number of biographical details posted by the account line up with Robinson’s own history, according to CNN. The network reported that Robinson appeared to use the account name on other platforms over the years, including YouTube and Pinterest, and that the email address associated with the account belonged to Robinson.

On the Nude Africa forum, the user expressed a desire to “bring [slavery] back” and “buy a few” slaves, while identifying himself as a “black NAZI,” according to CNN. 

“Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few,” the account wrote in a discussion about Black Republicans in 2010, according to CNN. 

“I like watching tranny on girl porn!” the minisoldr account also posted on Nude Africa, according to CNN. “That’s f****** hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in! And yeah I’m a ‘perv’ too!” 

In March 2012, minisoldr posted a preference for Hitler over former President Barack Obama’s administration: “I’d take Hitler over any of the s*** that’s in Washington right now!”

Minisoldr also used racist language to vilify civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr.

“I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!” the account posted in October 2011, according to CNN. 

Reports emerged earlier Thursday that CNN was planning to publish a damaging story that could lead other Republicans to call on Robinson to drop out of the race. In a video posted to X before the CNN story was published, Robinson flatly denied that he said anything in the CNN report and insisted he won’t drop out. North Carolina will begin mailing ballots to members of the military and voters outside the U.S. on Friday.

“The things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” Robinson said in his video. “You know my words, you know my character and you know that I have been completely transparent in this race and before.”

Robinson echoed those comments in an interview with CNN. “This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me,” Robinson said, adding that he wouldn’t “get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies” when presented with evidence that the account belonged to him.

Robinson, who is 56 and married with two children, has a history of inflammatory remarks that have widely circulated since he won the state’s Republican primary in March. Serving as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor since 2021, he gained prominence in Republican circles after he delivered a pro-gun rights speech that went viral and kickstarted his political career. He’s made inflammatory comments across a number of topics — from Islam to abortion to feminism — but he’s been especially vocal on LGBTQ+ issues. 

If elected, Robinson would become the first Black governor of North Carolina. Former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Robinson for governor, has referred to him as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

The lieutenant governor blamed the CNN report on his Democratic opponent, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. 

“You all have seen the half truths and outright lies of Josh Stein,” Robinson said, claiming that Stein leaked the story to CNN. 

The report’s release has spurred concern among Republicans about their nominee’s prospects in the coming election. Sen. Ted Budd, a North Carolina Republican, told reporters ahead of its release on Thursday that “North Carolinian voters are smart, and they know how to pick each and every candidate based on their own merits.”

When asked whether Robinson should step down, Budd said he didn’t have enough information. 

“They’ve been assaulting him for years,” Budd said before the article was published. “We’re going to gather our facts through the weekend.”

contributed to this report.