https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-layoffs-artificial-intelligence-return-to-office-tech-jobs-2026-4
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High turn over. A recruiter reached out saying they want me to interview. They trash people in employment reviews, terminate them. Then try someone else.
Not an Amazon Employee here, just curious. I have been inundated with Amazon commercials around how wonderful it is to work for them. What’s that all about? Layoffs speak louder than any commercial possibly could. It’s in the news daily about layoffs(missing from Bezos publication). No one wants to jump ship to another company that is struggling. So what’s the inside scoop for layoffs? Offshoring, AI, age discrimination? One news source said he’s trying to offload a $500M yacht. Put the pieces together and what do you see? Trouble in Paradise?
Layoffs are raising the stakes for those who remain
Few changes have been more impactful than layoffs.
When Joanelle Cobos was laid off from her design manager role at Amazon last October, she decided to take a few months to reset. After ramping up her search in January, she struggled to land interviews. She estimated she has less than a year before her funds run dry.
"My job search feels like a ticking time bo-b," she said.
After doubling its workforce between 2019 and 2021, Amazon has laid off more than 57,000 corporate employees, with more than half the cuts coming in October and January. The layoffs included managers, as part of an effort to reduce management layers and increase worker-to-manager ratios by 15%.
Laid-off workers have been forced to navigate a labor market where hiring has slowed. While some have managed to find new roles, others are still looking.
The effects of layoffs extend beyond those who lost their jobs. The fear of more cuts has pushed some employees, already facing stricter performance reviews, to step up their work to protect their jobs and avoid being placed on a performance improvement plan.
An employee based in Berlin said recent layoff rounds contributed to a culture of "put your elbows out and try to stay afloat."
"It's very tense," he said soon after the January layoffs. "Everyone's anxious."
Andrew Z. Chen, a software engineer based in New York City, said he's not personally too concerned about his job security — no one on his team was affected — but the January layoffs were still felt. He had scheduled a company book club on the day of the layoffs, and one employee who had RSVP'd was laid off.
"Most of the book discussion turned into a discussion about the layoffs," he said.
For many, navigating the company's recent changes has meant accepting a degree of uncertainty.
"I think many employees have adopted a more pragmatic mindset," said Sarthak Gupta, a data scientist in Seattle, "focusing on delivering impact and doing their best work, while accepting that some factors are outside individual control."