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Just a few days after taking out half of the world’s internet, Amazon is undergoing the biggest layoffs in the corporation’s 31 year history.
Reuters was the first to alert workers that the job cuts were expected to start Tuesday, affecting over 30,000 corporate roles. Sure enough, starting early Tuesday morning, thousands of workers for Amazon Web Services (AWS) — yes, the infrastructure-providing part of the company that brought down everything from Fortnite to Bored Ape NFTs when it failed spectacularly last week — began receiving texts and emails bearing the bad news.
Overall, 30,000 workers is just a drop in the bucket for Amazon’s workforce of 1.5 million of warehouse workers, drivers, and other blue collar roles. But as far as corporate employees go, that number accounts for a brutal 10 percent. Per sources who spoke to Reuters, the massive firing spree is a corrective measure meant to compensate for over-hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of HR, posted a memo addressed to all Amazon employees earlier today in which she claimed only 14,000 roles were being slashed. “Some may ask why we’re reducing roles when the company is performing well,” she wrote.
“What we need to remember is that the world is changing quickly,” she continued. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones).”
Former Amazon employees took to Blind, an anonymous messaging board only available to workers who register with their workplace email, to vent their frustrations. “I got laid off and I am pregnant. What should I do?” one post read.
“My husband has been looking for a job since he got laid off a few months ago. He didn’t take COBRA and we were on my insurance plan,” the Amazon worker wrote, referring to the group benefits package available to some employees who experience layoffs. (Amazon has previously been sued for intimidating employees out of taking the COBRA benefits.)
“Now we are both out of work, it’s not looking good,” the poster continued.
One former AWS employee whose role was previously eliminated told Futurism the typical “layoff playbook” at Amazon is 90 days to find an internal job, followed by three months of severance pay.
Some speculated that the timing of the cuts has more to do with Amazon’s upcoming quarterly earnings report, expected on October 30. Layoffs of this size are sure to boost Amazon’s future earnings projections, and thus its stock price. (Sure enough, Amazon stocks were up around 1.25 percent on Tuesday.)
“Just received an email that my role has been terminated at 3am PST,” an AWS worker with over five years at the company wrote. “I know it’s coming but still need time to process.”
“Got laid off today. Work-life balance had been rough for a while — just yesterday I joked that it wouldn’t be the worst thing if I got laid off,” sighed another. “I take it back. This uncertainty doesn’t feel nice at all.”
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