16,000 jobs down. How many more to go?
The sequel to Amazon’s mass layoffs last fall came yesterday with another round of deep job cuts. I’d love to tell you it’s an isolated incident, but it feels representative of a broader shift across tech and corporate America.
AI is ushering in a new era for workplaces, and companies are adjusting accordingly. As the ones closest to the tech (and spending the most on it), Big Tech would be the first to evolve. Make no mistake: Where Big Tech goes, the rest of the business world will likely follow.
So what can we glean from Amazon’s layoffs? Fortunately, my colleagues Eugene Kim and Ashley Stewart are crushing it with scoops. Their stories provide context about Amazon’s decision and how that translates to your own workplace.
Let’s dive in:
No one is safe: Internal Slack messages Ashley viewed show how many teams were bitten by the layoff bug. That includes businesses within AWS (its AI cloud service and cloud data warehouse service) and Amazon’s retail business.
One Amazon worker used an AI tool to flag roles on the chopping block. That list is even broader, although it may contain inaccuracies since it’s AI-generated. Another noticeable trend is how software engineers got hit particularly hard, as has been the case in tech recently.
Own it: After a not-so-hot start, Amazon has coordinated its post-layoffs communications. And there’s one word that keeps cropping up: ownership.
Prasad Kalyanaraman, VP of AWS Infrastructure, and Colleen Aubrey, SVP of Applied AI Solutions, both described “doubling down on a culture of ownership” in memos Ashley viewed. That sentiment, coupled with the changes Eugene reported on in performance reviews, signals that the further away you are from doing the actual work, the more at risk you are.
AI can be a friend as much as a foe: Artificial intelligence often takes a lot of blame for why jobs are getting swallowed up. A memo from AWS VP Greg Pearson that Eugene viewed paints a different picture.
He urged workers to “keep finding ways to use technology to simplify our work.” It’s something I heard a lot of last week when chatting with execs: “AI won’t take your job, but the person willing to use it will.”
Make change, don’t manage it: I’m not a tech career coach (I’ll leave that advice to this guy), but the layoffs, coupled with CEO Andy Jassy’s ongoing war against bureaucracy, indicate a desire to get more people rolling up their sleeves.
It’s reminiscent of a recent convo I had with Cisco president and chief product officer Jeetu Patel. He stressed the importance of figuring out the change you want to make and working toward it, rather than focusing on a job title.
“If in the pursuit of that change, you have to go out and reluctantly manage some people, then go ahead and do that,” Patel told me. “But management, in and of itself, is not a full-time job.”
