‘People crying in Amazon India office, 75% of my team is gone’: employee amid layoffs

The job cuts amount to 6% of Amazon’s roughly 3,00,000-person corporate workforce.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Describing gloomy scenes at Amazon India’s offices, a post purportedly made by an employee on the anonymous community app for Indian professionals, Grapevine, said people are “crying in the office”.

“75% of my team is gone. Although I’m in the remaining 25% I don’t feel motivated to work anymore… They are firing people in cabins. People are crying in the office,” said an anonymous employee.

Amazon in January announced layoffs will stretch to more than 18,000 roles as part of a workforce reduction it previously disclosed. The layoff decisions, which Amazon will communicate starting January 18, will largely impact the company’s e-commerce and human-resources organisations, Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy had said.

The cuts amount to 6% of Amazon’s roughly 3,00,000-person corporate workforce and represent a swift turn for a retailer that recently doubled its base pay ceiling to compete more aggressively for talent.

According to reports, layoffs have impacted several departments across the country. Amazon, which has 1 lakh employees in India, is set to sack 1,000 employees — 1% of its workforce, TheTimes of India had reported, However, the U.S.-based firm is reportedly offering five months’ severance pay to laid-off employees as well as “exceptional payments” based on the employees’ tenure.

Amazon has more than 1.5 million workers including warehouse staff, making it America’s second-largest private employer after Walmart Inc. It has braced for likely slower growth as soaring inflation encouraged businesses and consumers to cut back spending and its share price has halved in the past year.

It began letting staff go in November from its devices division, with a source telling Reuters at the time it was targeting 10,000 job cuts.

In number, its layoffs now surpass the 11,000 job cuts at Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc as well as reductions at other tech-industry peers.

(With agency inputs)