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Amazon and various tech companies have implemented mandatory five-day return-to-office policies, and these policies have caused some workers to search for positions at other companies that have more flexible office policies. Nick Bloom, a Stanford economics professor who focuses on remote work policies, states that companies may be using these policies as a backdoor strategy to lay off employees. With the changing conditions in the tech industry, many companies have been laying off workers to increase efficiency, and these policies naturally help bring down headcounts. This is due to implementing a policy that companies know workers are strongly against, according to Cristina Banks, the director of the University of California-Berkleky’s Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces. The policies also allow companies not to have to design rules for hybrid working environments, as each worker's hybrid work schedules look different.