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Amazon is halting the development of six new office buildings in Washington and Tennessee to remodel workplaces for hybrid work.

More than two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, several businesses are making an effort to make their workplaces more inviting and collaborative for staff, especially for those who prefer working remotely. Amazon said on Friday that it will postpone the construction of conventional working floors in favour of more collaborative designs.

‘Jobs are unaffected’

According to John Schoettler, vice president of global real estate and facilities at Amazon, the conglomerate is still figuring out how these new behaviours affect its office footprint. Amazon said the hiatus will begin after the outside and lobby parts of the buildings are completed.

The delay, which impacts one of Amazon’s two Nashville towers (Tennessee) and five buildings on its campus in Bellevue (Washington), wasn’t given a timeline.

In 2018, Amazon declared it would establish an operations center in Nashville with 5,000 employees. In its latest update, the commerce giant claims the construction halt won’t affect those jobs or the 25,000 positions it previously promised to create in Bellevue.

Catering to a changed worker

The pandemic has changed business life, with many employees now appreciating the comforts of working from home. For some, commutes and physical gatherings became optional. Some studies indicate that less than half of all pre-pandemic office workers still visit business districts.

Many firms adopted hybrid policies. Some discovered the need to redesign workplaces in order to attract staff. Accenture, a consultancy company, recently constructed an innovation center in New York featuring an outdoor patio and panoramic views in the hopes that it will entice employees to return.

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