As part of its latest cost-cutting move, Amazon has begun notifying employees whose roles are being eliminated, offering a mix of continued pay, benefits, and career support to ease the transition. On Wednesday morning, affected corporate employees across the US, UK, and India received emails from Amazon’s HR chief, Beth Galetti, informing them that their positions are being cut as part of a broader reduction of 16,000 corporate roles.
“I have some important, but difficult, news to share with you,” the email states. “After a thorough review of our organization, our priorities, and what we need to focus on going forward, we’ve made the hard business decision to eliminate some roles across Amazon. Unfortunately, your role is being eliminated as part of these changes, and your employment will end after a notification period.”
Pay, benefits, and a non-working period
Employees impacted by the layoffs will first enter a non-working notification period during which they will continue to receive their full pay and benefits for 90 days. During this time, they are not expected to work, allowing them space to plan their next steps and remaining financially supported.
Severance and transition support
Following the notification period, Amazon will provide employees with a severance package along with additional transitional benefits, though specific terms may vary by role and location.
To support long-term employability, the company is also offering external job placement assistance and 12 months of complimentary access to AWS Skill Builder, Amazon’s training platform focused on cloud and technical skills.
Teams most affected
Internal Slack messages reviewed by Business Insider explains that the layoffs have hit several teams within Amazon Web Services, including the AI cloud service Bedrock, the Redshift data warehouse unit, and the ProServe consulting group.
Retail-side teams, such as the Prime subscription service and the last-mile Delivery Experience team, have also been impacted. This round of layoffs follows a previous reduction in October, when Amazon cut 14,000 roles.
Read the full letter here:
“I have some important, but difficult, news to share with you. After a thorough review of our organization, our priorities, and what we need to focus on going forward, we’ve made the hard business decision to eliminate some roles across Amazon. Unfortunately, your role is being eliminated as part of these changes and your employment will end after a notification period. These decisions weren’t made lightly, and we recognize the significant impact they have. We’re committed to supporting you through this transition with:
A non-working period with your full pay and benefits
A severance package offer and transitional benefits
External job placement support and 12 months of complimentary access to AWS Skill Builder
As of now, you are no longer required to perform work on Amazon’s behalf and will continue to receive your full pay and benefits for the next 90 days.
You likely have questions, and we’re here to answer them. You’ll soon receive an invitation to schedule a conversation with a leader and/or HR point of contact from your team to discuss the specifics of your transition and how we can best support you. While this meeting is optional, we encourage you to attend virtually as it provides an opportunity to address your individual questions. Additionally, you’ll receive a separate email from Amazon – Enterprise Document Management (notifications@atoz.amazon.work) with your formal announcement paperwork by the end of the day today.
Please note that your badge access has been restricted; so, if you’re currently in an Amazon office, Security can assist you with exiting the building.During your non-working transition period, you’ll continue to have access to internal email, Chime, and A to Z on your personal device, and our primary mode of communication with you will be through email. Please keep your YubiKey to access email on a personal laptop/computer.
We encourage you to take time now to confirm that you have access to these tools on your personal device and that your personal email address is up to date in A to Z. You can find more information about installing A to Z, connecting to MyHR, and accessing Chime and email on this page.
We appreciate that this is a difficult update to receive and have shared answers to some of the most common questions related to your pay, benefits, support resources, and next steps below. Remember that caring team members are ready to assist you 24/7 through MyHR or the Employee Assistance Portal (EAP), offering free and confidential support, both available within A to Z.I’m personally committed to making sure you get the help you need as you navigate this change. Please just reply to this email if you run into any trouble at all getting what you need—whether that’s connectivity issues, questions about next steps, or any other concerns.”
Thank you,
Beth Galetti
