In what is the sequel to an earlier report, Amazon has initiated the process of laying off several employees across multiple departments. The affected employees have been informed that they have a two-month window to accept severance pay or find another role in the multinational tech behemoth.
“As part of our annual operating planning review process, we always look at each of our businesses and what we believe we should change. As we’ve gone through this, given the current macro-economic environment, some teams are making adjustments, which in some cases means certain roles are no longer necessary. We don’t take these decisions lightly, and we are working to support any employees who may be affected,” said Kelly Nantel, a spokesperson for Amazon.
While the tech giant has refrained from mentioning the number of employees it will be eliminating in its bid to cut down costs, previous media reports have revealed that the number of affected employees will end up in the thousands – nearly 10,000, which represents around 3% of its corporate and tech personnel and less than 1% of its global work force. It comes alongside Amazon’s notification to regional authorities in California that it intends to lay off about 260 workers at various facilities, and these job cuts will be effective from January 17.
The layoffs are largely happening across the corporate and tech sectors and across multiple departments. Several of the affected employees hail from Amazon’s devices division, whose performance has been less than stellar this year. Far from bringing in profits, the devices division has been hit hard by the tightening of belts and adverse macroeconomic conditions to reportedly operate at a revenue loss of $5 billion a year – which, despite Amazon’s dominance in the market, hurts the tech giant more than it’ll care to admit.
Which is why, after “closely evaluating its Alexa business,” the company has decided to initiate a purge in the unit, much to the woe of those who are part of the teams. And it seems that several holders of the H1-B visa have been grouped in with the eliminated employees, which makes the situation tougher for them as they risk being deported from the country if they fail to fire a sponsor before their visa expires.
“After a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs. One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required,” Dave Limp, Senior Vice President of Devices & Services at Amazon, wrote in an update on Wednesday.
While Twitter is the place that individuals go to when they decide to air their grievances – in case a website or a social media platform goes down for some time, for example – several of the laid off have turned to LinkedIn to share their stories and find new jobs. And unlike Meta, which is offering aid to foreign nationals that it laid off, Amazon has not gone beyond handing the pink slips.
“Today, I found out that I’ve been laid off. I’m joining many others who are experiencing the feelings that come with losing your dream job. I was with Amazon for 6 years. We have seen Alexa grow from its early days and it’s been an incredible journey,” wrote Raj, Kansagra, a (now former) Sofware Development Engineer at Amazon, in a LinkedIn post.
“I’m proud of what we built together. I’m actively seeking my next opportunity. I’m reaching out to my network for positions in Backend Software Engineering (Product/Infra). I have 8+ years of experience, starting my career at Symantec and then becoming part of Amazon. I’m on an H1-B visa so time is of the essence to find something new,” he added.
“Unfortunately, I was impacted by today’s layoff with 10,000 other Amazonians. It is super hard for all of us and I am still trying to navigate through this, while constrained by the timeline of being on a #visa. I am nothing but grateful for the time I have spent at Amazon, learning and collaborating with some of the brightest folks in the industry,” read a LinkedIn post by Shivani Parate, former Software Development Engineer at Amazon.
