Earlier this year, LinkedIn was flooded with stories from people sharing their experiences of navigating through widespread industry layoffs. From major IT giants to mid-sized companies and startups, thousands of employees found themselves affected.
The impact of these layoffs extended beyond the people themselves, reaching their families as well. As time passed, there was a sense of relief as news about layoffs seemed to subside, leading many to believe that the worst was behind us. However, the specter of layoffs resurfaced earlier this month, as Amazon made the decision to part ways with hundreds of employees from its Alexa division.
One of the impacted employees shared his story on LinkedIn and wrote he had waited for 6 months to land a job with Amazon. However, the employee was fired within just four months of joining. He added that since he is on H1-B visa, he has just 60 days to find a new job.
“Unfortunately, I was impacted by recent Amazon Alexa layoffs. I joined Amazon in August after waiting for 6 months. Though it was a short stint, I got the opportunity to work in a great team and was able to learn many things in the Alexa ecosystem. Since I am on a H1-B visa I have 60 days to find new opportunities,” the ex-Amazon employee‘s LinkedIn post read.
He then asked his LinkedIn community to help him out in finding a new role.
A Bloomberg report had earlier revealed about Amazon’s decision to cut jobs in the Alexa division. The report said that “several hundred” people were impacted by the decision.
Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa and Fire TV, reportedly sent a note to employees, informing them of the company’s decision to hand the pink slip to some employees.
In the memo, Amazon expressed its commitment to innovation while strategically realigning efforts to better match business priorities and customer preferences. The emphasis, as per the memo, is on “maximizing resources and concentrating efforts on generative AI.”
“These shifts are leading us to discontinue some initiatives, which is resulting in several hundred roles being eliminated,” Rausch wrote in the memo, as per the Bloomberg report.
Earlier, Amazon had also laid off people from its gaming and music teams.
An Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company has been keeping a close eye on their “organisational needs” and has been “prioritising what matters the most to customers keeping the business’s long-term health in mind.”
