Amazon Laid Off More Than 100 Middle Managers Despite Making $10 Billion In Profit Last Quarter — ‘We Were Working 12-16 Hour Days’
Many of the laid off employees had no idea they were being let go until it was too late.
Cineberg | Shutterstock It seems that Amazon has made some changes around their company after it was reported that hundreds of managers were suddenly fired, despite the company making quite the profit that wouldn't have called for such drastic layoffs in the first place.
The company has been slowly letting go of many of its workers since March 2024, and it hasn't seemed to slow down despite many of them putting in the work and demonstrating strong performances.
Amazon laid off more than 100 middle managers despite making $10 billion in profit last quarter.
According to Fortune, Amazon officially laid off more than 100 customer service managers working in Level 5 and Level 6 middle management positions both in call centers and virtually. Many of those impacted employees resided in both the United States and India.
The managers were only alerted to something happening when their computer systems were suddenly shut down during their workday. "We have had more and more work added, 12-16 hour days, maximum stress to be cut free without a thought or a warning," a person impacted by the sudden layoffs told Fortune.
Another source told Fortune that they routinely pulled 12 to 16-hour days to get their jobs done — and instead of being rewarded with a raise, a promotion, or some more paid time off, they were simply fired without warning. An Amazon spokesperson claimed that the restructuring was intended in part to shrink the distance between customers and customer service leaders.
"As part of a shift in how our Worldwide Customer Service organization is structured, we’ve identified a relatively small number of roles that are no longer required," Amazon spokesperson Montana MacLachlan said in a statement, according to Fortune. "We did not make these decisions lightly, and we are committed to supporting employees whose roles are affected during their transition."
All of the affected employees will still receive pay and benefits for 60 days, which will also include severance.
Companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have continued to announce massive layoffs this year, and yet, there is a proven toll that this takes on both the employed and unemployed.
In a comprehensive summary of more than 300 studies on this subject, unemployed people are more distressed, less satisfied with their lives, marriages, and families, and more likely to report psychological problems than the employed after being laid off.
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Even before being let go from a company, the possibility and fear can often impact job productivity if employees spend all of their time worrying about whether or not they will continue to have a place somewhere.
It's disheartening when people put in hours upon hours of their time and dedication only to be dismissed without notice. For places like Amazon, which made $10 billion in profit last quarter, it's particularly troubling that such profitable companies still resort to drastic layoffs.
In the past, Amazon has been criticized for the way they treat their employees.
According to a May 2024 report from the University Of Illinois Chicago, roughly half of frontline warehouse workers at Amazon are having trouble making ends meet. The study comes five years after the online retailer raised the minimum hourly wage to $15.
Fifty-three percent of workers said they experienced food insecurity in the previous three months, while 48% said they had trouble covering rent or housing costs over the same time period. While another 56% of warehouse workers who sort, pack, and ship goods to customers said they weren't able to pay their bills in full.
Despite working for one of the most successful companies in the world, Amazon employees are so financially strained that one-third have relied on at least one publicly funded assistance program, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. In an emailed statement, Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly, according to Time, attempted to defend the company and called the researchers’ findings "deeply flawed."
"It’s a survey that ignores best practices for surveying, has limited verification safeguards to confirm respondents are Amazon employees and doesn’t prevent multiple responses from the same person," he said. Kelly added that Amazon has increased average pay to $20.50 an hour and provides a range of benefits, including health care, dental, 401(k), and pre-paid tuition.
Yet, the numbers speak for themselves and paint a sobering reality of the struggles faced by Amazon workers who should be able to rely on a stable income given the company's staggering profitability.
If companies want to fuel a good workflow environment where their employees are satisfied and willing to come to work every day giving it their all, then they should prioritize the basic needs that their employees are asking for, instead of being forced to live paycheck to paycheck.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.