Amazon message to managers on 30,000 layoffs: Emails notifications will start going out on Tuesday morning, get 'trained' to ...

Update: Amazon has officially announced that it is cutting approximatly 14,000 corporate roles in the company.



Amazon managers received urgent training Monday, October 27 on how to communicate with employees just hours before the company began notifying corporate workers of their termination, according to Reuters sources and internal documents reviewed by multiple outlets.


The layoffs, which began Tuesday morning via email, represent nearly 10% of Amazon’s 350,000 corporate employees and mark the largest job cut in the company’s history. Reuters reported that managers of impacted teams were specifically instructed on Monday to prepare for delivering the difficult news, with notifications scheduled to roll out the following day.


The cuts affect multiple divisions including human resources (known internally as People Experience and Technology or PXT), operations, devices and services, and Amazon Web Services, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters.

HR division faces deepest cuts as AI investments surge

Fortune reported that the HR division alone could see cuts of up to 15% of its staff, affecting thousands of the unit’s 10,000-plus employees worldwide. CEO Andy Jassy has been driving an aggressive cost-cutting campaign while simultaneously investing over $100 billion in AI infrastructure this year, according to Fortune.

CNBC confirmed the cuts would represent the largest single layoff event across the tech industry since at least 2020. The company has already eliminated 27,000 positions since late 2022, but this round significantly exceeds previous reductions.

Return-to-office policy fails to drive voluntary departures

Internal messages viewed by Business Insider showed that employees in the US, UK, and Canada would be affected. A draft severance email promised full pay and benefits for 90 days following termination.


Jassy’s efficiency initiative includes reducing management layers through an anonymous complaint system that has generated 1,500 responses. However, the company’s strict five-day return-to-office policy has failed to generate sufficient voluntary attrition, contributing to the layoff’s scope, two sources told Reuters.


Despite the corporate cuts, Amazon plans to hire 250,000 seasonal warehouse workers for the holiday season.