Amazon has started the year with a series of layoffs across different parts of the company as it continues to trim its workforce and streamline operations.
On Wednesday, Amazon said it was laying off dozens of employees in its communications and corporate responsibility department, which includes its sustainability team.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has worked to trim head count and streamline operations throughout his nearly four years at the helm.
The deepest cuts came in 2022 and 2023, when Amazon laid off at least 27,000 employees across its divisions.
As part of its efforts to streamline operations, the communications and corporate responsibility team is also asking some employees to relocate, Glasser said.
As it continues to reduce its workforce and streamline operations, Amazon began the year with a number of layoffs in various departments.
Hundreds of workers in Amazon’s corporate responsibility and communications division, which includes its sustainability team, will be let go, the company announced on Wednesday.
The announcement follows a 200-person layoff from Amazon’s stores division, which runs the company’s online marketplace.
Separately, earlier this month, Amazon announced that it would close all seven of its warehouses in the province of Quebec, Canada, which would mean 1,700 job losses.
The cuts made on Wednesday are a part of Amazon’s efforts to make its business more efficient.
Brad Glasser, a spokesman for Amazon, stated, “We constantly assess our organization’s structures to make sure we’re best positioned to innovate and deliver results efficiently.”. The Communications and Corporate Responsibility organization is undergoing some changes in response to a recent review. These changes will help us move more quickly, foster greater ownership, fortify our culture, and bring teams closer to customers. “.”.
Amazon did not disclose the number of laid-off workers or the ways in which the reductions affected the teams under the corporate responsibility and communications headings.
Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, has spent his nearly four years in the position working to reduce staff and streamline operations. The most significant layoffs occurred in 2022 and 2023, when Amazon let go of at least 27,000 workers across all of its businesses. Smaller cuts have been made to the company’s finances ever since.
The company is trying to become less bureaucratic, according to Jassy, who stated in September that all teams should have fewer managers than individual contributors. This, he claimed, would eliminate superfluous layers that were impeding creativity and keeping workers farther away from their tasks.
“We have added a lot of managers, which makes sense given how rapidly and significantly we have expanded our teams over the past few years,” Jassy wrote. Additionally, we added more layers than previously during that process. We would like to alter the artifacts it has produced. “”.
After implementing a three-day-per-week mandate since May 2023, Jassy informed staff members in that September announcement that they would now be expected to work from the office five days a week.
The new rule that went into effect earlier this month sparked rumors among workers that it was another attempt to reduce the workforce by incentivizing some workers to resign rather than imposing layoffs. Amazon refuted that accusation.
According to Glasser, the corporate responsibility and communications team is also requesting that some staff members move as part of its efforts to streamline operations. These workers will get assistance with their relocation. Layoffed employees will get severance pay in addition to 60 days of pay and benefits.