Amazon has quietly introduced a new internal tool that allows managers to closely monitor how often employees come to the office and how long they stay. According to internal documents cited in a report, the system uses employee badge data to create a near real-time view of office attendance, strengthening the company’s strict return-to-office policy.
The dashboard, which started rolling out to teams in December, is accessible to managers and HR leaders. It tracks how frequently employees swipe their badges at Amazon offices, the number of hours they spend inside, and whether they report to their officially assigned location. The data is refreshed daily and reviewed over a rolling 8-week period, making low attendance patterns easier to identify.
This represents a clear shift from Amazon’s earlier approach, where attendance tracking relied mainly on aggregated data or HR-led reports. With the new system, managers can now view individual-level attendance data directly, giving them greater visibility into how teams are following in-office requirements.
The development aligns with Amazon’s firm stance on office attendance. Last year, the company introduced one of the strictest return-to-office policies in the technology sector, asking most corporate employees to work from the office 5 days a week. While many companies adopted hybrid or remote work models, Amazon maintained that in-person work remains critical to its culture and productivity.
The dashboard groups employees into defined categories. Those who spend less than 4 hours per day in the office on average are labelled “Low-Time Badgers.” Employees who have not entered an Amazon office at all during the 8-week period are marked as “Zero Badgers.” Another category highlights employees who regularly badge into offices different from their assigned location.
“These metrics are intended to surface employees operating significantly outside documented in-office expectations,” the document states.
Amazon has said the tool should not be applied in a rigid or automatic manner. Managers are advised to use discretion before taking formal action. Responding to queries, an Amazon spokesperson said, “For more than a year now, we’ve provided tools like this for managers to help identify who on their team may need support in working from the office each day.” The spokesperson added that the tool has been updated for consistency across teams and that office attendance expectations remain unchanged.
The company has steadily tightened attendance oversight. In 2023, Amazon began sharing individual-level attendance data with leaders. In 2024, it also moved to address “coffee badging,” where employees briefly enter offices to log attendance, with some teams requiring 2 to 6 hours in the office for a day to count.
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