In Amazon's Layoffs, Comparisons To How Mark Zuckerberg Did It (Better)

As Amazon began the largest layoffs in its history on Tuesday, there was anger and confusion among the staff who kept waiting for some communication from the company's top bosses.

Comparisons were drawn between how Amazon handled the sackings versus Meta, which recently laid off 13 per cent of its staff.

Employees fearing job loss questioned why Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy hadn't addressed the staff like Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg did when announcing job cuts.

There was no word from the bosses after a New York Times report on the layoffs on Monday. It was only after 48 hours that a top executive wrote to his team, acknowledging the layoffs.

Amazon's Devices Chief Dave Limp reportedly wrote a note to his team on Wednesday, offering severance payments. He said in the note that the firings "pained" him, according to Bloomberg.

On Tuesday evening, many in the human rights division, including recruiters and software engineers, received a buyout offer or voluntary release program, according to vox.com. Amazon offered employees three months of pay and one week of salary for every six months of tenure. Those who received it had two weeks to decide. However, the staff complained about the lack of clarity on the severance package and whether it would apply for forced exits.

Employees were "living in fear", unable to focus on work, said various reports.

Many searched for clues from email subjects and human resources meeting invites. Employees complained about the "disgusting" lack of transparency. They also consoled each other after receiving the bad news.

According to Vox.com, some managers told employees they "thought" their division was safe. The publication quoted a source as saying the company's business leaders wanted to communicate the layoffs to those who were losing their job first, before broadcasting a message to the entire company.

On Tuesday morning, some Amazon employees, especially those in the loss-making Alexa voice assistant division, found a calendar invitation for a 15-minute videoconference in their mail.

"It's all gone down very secretly. On Tuesday, some of us got meeting requests from human resources and a manager, and that was a dead give-away," said a worker who was fired in one such meeting, according to Bloomberg.

It was only on Wednesday that Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel released a public statement. "As part of our annual operating planning review process, we always look at each of our businesses and what we believe we should change," read the statement. "As we've gone through this, given the current macro-economic environment (as well as several years of rapid hiring), some teams are making adjustments, which in some cases means certain roles are no longer necessary. We don't take these decisions lightly, and we are working to support any employees who may be affected."