TLDR
- AWS employees received an accidental layoff notification email Tuesday night, spoiling Amazon’s Wednesday announcement plans
- The premature message from senior VP Colleen Aubrey mentioned “Project Dawn” and incorrectly stated workers were already notified
- Amazon is eliminating around 30,000 corporate roles across AWS, retail, Prime Video and human resources divisions
- These cuts follow 14,000 October layoffs as Amazon reduces management layers and adopts AI technology
- The company also announced Tuesday it’s closing Fresh and Go stores while cutting grocery division jobs
Things didn’t go according to plan at Amazon on Tuesday. Someone hit send too early on a layoff notification email.
AWS employees got the message Tuesday evening. It told them about job cuts scheduled for Wednesday morning. The problem? Nobody was supposed to know yet.
Colleen Aubrey sent the email. She’s a senior vice president in Amazon’s cloud computing division. Her message said impacted employees had already been told about losing their jobs.
That wasn’t accurate. The notifications hadn’t gone out yet. A team meeting scheduled for Wednesday got canceled within minutes. Employees started talking about it in Slack channels right away.
The email called the layoffs “Project Dawn.” That’s Amazon’s internal code name for the cuts. Aubrey wrote that the decisions were made “thoughtfully” to position AWS for future success.
Amazon hasn’t commented on the mistake. The company also hasn’t officially confirmed the layoff plans.
Cuts Span Multiple Business Units
The job eliminations reach far beyond AWS. Several major divisions will lose employees this week.
Prime Video, retail operations and human resources are all on the chopping block. The total number of cuts could reach 30,000 corporate positions.
Amazon already cut 14,000 jobs back in October. That was phase one of this larger plan. The full 30,000 figure equals nearly 10% of Amazon’s corporate employees.
Andy Jassy explained the thinking last year. The CEO wants to flatten management structures and reduce red tape. He predicted in June that AI would shrink corporate headcount naturally.
Beth Galetti runs human resources at Amazon. She wrote about the October cuts in a blog post. That post suggested more layoffs would come later. Tuesday’s mistaken email referenced Galetti’s writing, though it hasn’t been published on Amazon’s site.
Grocery Business Takes a Hit Too
Amazon dropped more bad news Tuesday about its grocery operations. Fresh supermarkets and Go convenience stores are getting axed.
The company wants to put money into Whole Foods instead. Online grocery delivery will also get more attention. Jason Buechel leads grocery operations. He told employees Amazon needs to be smarter about investments.
Job cuts hit the grocery teams on Tuesday. Amazon didn’t say how many people lost positions.
The timing creates pressure before earnings. Amazon reports fourth-quarter results on February 5.
Amazon’s total workforce stands at 1.58 million people. Most of those employees work in warehouses and delivery. The corporate cuts affect a small slice of overall headcount.
The email mistake created an awkward situation. Companies usually control the message around layoffs carefully. Amazon lost that control through an accidental leak.
Reuters broke the story about planned layoffs on Friday. Amazon still hasn’t made an official statement. Wednesday morning should bring answers for thousands of anxious corporate employees waiting to learn their fate.
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