Amazon layoffs

SEATTLE (AP) — A group of Amazon workers upset about recent layoffs, a return-to-office mandate and the company’s environmental impact is planning a walkout at the company’s Seattle headquarters Wednesday. The lunchtime protest comes a week after Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting and a month after a policy took effect requiring workers to return to the office three days per week. READ MORE: Amazon to cut 9,000 more jobs in second round of layoffs “We respect our employees’ rights to express their opinions,” the company said in a statement. As of Tuesday night, more than 1,800 employees had pledged to walk out around the world, with about 870 in Seattle, according to Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a climate change advocacy group founded by Amazon workers. While some plan to gather at the Amazon Spheres — a four-story structure in downtown Seattle that from the outside looks like three connected glass orbs — others will participate remotely. Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, said there has been a good energy on the company’s South Lake Union campus and at its other urban centers since more employees returned to the office. More than 20,000 workers, however, signed a petition urging Amazon to reconsider the return-to-office mandate. “As it pertains to the specific topics this group of employees is raising,” Glasser said in a statement, “we’ve explained our thinking in different forums over the past few months and will continue to do so.” In a February memo, Amazo...

While those inside the company have known this was coming, no one knew when the internal memo would start circulation. Today, employees started getting notified of the job cuts—many of which are within the flagship Amazon Web Services (AWS) division, which has reportedly caused concern among employees. Internal memo announces layoffs at AWS Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud division, is a massive profit center for the company. Most employees working with this part of the business likely would have felt relatively safe, given that the majority of previous layoffs have been limited to fringe areas of the company such as their gaming and Echo departments. But now it appears that the fallout from the current economic climate has spread. The memo has reportedly stated that job losses at AWS will be spread globally, with the U.S., Canada and Costa Rica the first regions to be impacted today. Other regions are expected to be impacted, but local labor laws make this a more drawn out process. The package for these employees includes a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits and external job placement support. “Given [our] rapid growth, as well as the overall business and macroeconomic climate, it is critical that we focus on identifying and putting our resources behind our top priorities—those things that matter most to customers and that will move the needle for our business,” the memo continues. “In many cases this means team members are shifting the pro...

In a memo to employees, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company will apply its “Invent and Simplify” leadership principle not just to products but to its own organization. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota) Amazon, simplify thyself. That was the message to Amazon employees Wednesday from Andy Jassy, signaling a shift in mindset with significant implications for the company’s future. The • • The layoffs represent about 5% of Amazon’s corporate workforce, which numbers around 350,000 people. The company’s overall base of • The 18,000 number is more reported planned, because they were never targeting a specific number. This last point speaks to Amazon’s peculiar management structure, which fueled its growth but might be proving incompatible with best practices for corporate cutbacks. More on this in a moment. But for those who remain, the message is clear: Amazon’s everything era is over. “We often talk about our leadership principle Invent and Simplify in the context of creating new products and features,” Jassy wrote, offering assurances that there “will continue to be plenty of this across all of the businesses we’re pursuing.” However, the Amazon CEO wrote, “we sometimes overlook the importance of the critical invention, problem-solving, and simplification that go into figuring out what matters most to customers (and the business), adjusting where we spend our resources and time, and finding a way to do more for customers at a lower cost (passing on savings to customers ...

I've realized that managers are responsible for layoffs. As the former head of analytics at eBay, Amazon, and GameStop, I have seen several layoffs throughout my 20+ years in the workforce. I've recently been thinking a bit deeper about why layoffs occur at companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and others. At most companies, the reason for layoffs is almost always the same: trimming expenses with a goal to achieve better margins. But many of those expenses shouldn't have existed to begin with. From what I've seen, managers are responsible for layoffs because they end up bloating a company when seeking promotions. Let me explain. When it comes to promotion size matters To get promoted, you have to show that you're able to manage a larger scope, which almost always includes managing more team members. But managers rarely inherit additional teams or team members. Instead, the only way that managers can demonstrate their ability to lead a larger team is to hire more people. By hiring more team members, the manager's scope would naturally increase which increased the odds of being promoted. Even though executives at every company I've worked at — including Amazon, eBay, Gamestop, VMware, and multiple start-ups — stressed the importance of creating more efficient teams, they never actually rewarded those who were able to operate efficiently. So instead of incentivizing leaders to create more efficient and profitable organizations, managers are incentivized to do the oppos...

Amazon’s first quarter Amazon began its The moves aren’t a surprise. Late last year, the company announced it would “Like most leadership teams, we’ll continue to evaluate what we’re seeing in our business and proceed adaptively,” said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy during the Thursday earnings call. “But while we’ve taken several actions to streamline our costs, we’ve been able to do so while still pursuing the key strategic long-term investments that we believe can meaningfully make customers’ lives better and potentially change what Amazon is.” Translation: Amazon will invest more heavily into “ During the earnings call, Jassy said Amazon would expand its international segment and pour more resources into its “still nascent” grocery business. Jassy also confirmed that Amazon plans to further develop its Buy with Prime program, entertainment, devices, health care, and its low Earth orbit satellite— Areas in which the company “It’s hard to predict that all of these will be successful, but only one or two working would change our business over the long term,” said Jassy. Amber Burton [email protected] @ Reporter's Notebook The most compelling data, quotes, and insights from the field. According to the Labor Department, job openings fell to a nearly two-year low in March. Job postings dropped from almost 10 million in February to 9.6 million the next month, signaling the job market is losing momentum. "Layoffs rose to 1.8 million, the highest level since December 2020. The nu...

Amazon confirmed Wednesday it has begun laying off employees in its devices organization, the start of a string of job cuts that will likely affect around 10,000 workers in devices, retail and human resources. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on how many layoffs would be from its Washington state workforce. Amazon “After a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs,” Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon, wrote in the post. “One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required.” “It pains me to have to deliver this news as we know we will lose talented Amazonians from the Devices and Service org as a result,” he continued. The devices organization includes Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa, as well as Kindle, smart home products, Echo speakers, its health device Halo and its home robot Astro. Amazon will help affected workers find new roles within the company, Limp said. For those who cannot find a new position, Amazon will offer “separation payment, transitional benefits and external job placement support.” As of Wednesday evening, Washington’s Employment Security Department, which records job losses in the state, did not yet list any information about Amazon’s layoffs. If Amazon’s Washington workforce is significantly affected by the layoffs, the company will have to file a WARN notice with the state, indicating how many of the job cuts are happening in its Seattl...

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Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Amazon has long been one of the top employers in the tech industry. Online shopping was consistently growing, and Amazon’s two main profit engines, cloud services and In late November, Amazon began making what are expected to be A company spokesperson confirmed that job offers were pulled, which was “The question among employees is, ‘Does this mean we should only be on teams that add revenue or that we think are ‘the most safe’?” an Amazon senior manager of more than 10 years told Recode. “That’s very damaging to the ‘Think Big’ and ‘Invent and Simplify’ ethos of this company.” (Those are two of the 16 leadership principles that are supposed to guide how work gets done inside Amazon.) Are you a current or former Amazon employee with thoughts or tips on this topic? Please email Jason Del Rey at [email protected] or [email protected]. His phone number and Signal number are available upon request by email. Yet the problem with looking for deeper meaning in Amazon’s recent moves — beyond what we already know about its leaders being leery about the future of the economy and that they bet that a pandemic-fueled e-commerce boom woul...

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SEATTLE (AP) — A group of Amazon workers upset about recent layoffs, a return-to-office mandate and the company’s environmental impact is planning a walkout at the company’s Seattle headquarters Wednesday. The lunchtime protest comes a week after Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting and a month after a policy took effect requiring workers to return to the office three days per week. READ MORE: Amazon to cut 9,000 more jobs in second round of layoffs “We respect our employees’ rights to express their opinions,” the company said in a statement. As of Tuesday night, more than 1,800 employees had pledged to walk out around the world, with about 870 in Seattle, according to Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a climate change advocacy group founded by Amazon workers. While some plan to gather at the Amazon Spheres — a four-story structure in downtown Seattle that from the outside looks like three connected glass orbs — others will participate remotely. Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, said there has been a good energy on the company’s South Lake Union campus and at its other urban centers since more employees returned to the office. More than 20,000 workers, however, signed a petition urging Amazon to reconsider the return-to-office mandate. “As it pertains to the specific topics this group of employees is raising,” Glasser said in a statement, “we’ve explained our thinking in different forums over the past few months and will continue to do so.” In a February memo, Amazo...