Amazon layoffs expected to disproportionately hit AWS and tech talent

Jassy explained: “If you grow as fast as we did for several years, the size of businesses, the number of people, the number of locations, the types of businesses you’re in, you end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers. And when that happens, sometimes without realizing, you can weaken the ownership of the people that you have who are doing the actual work.”

Mohan Mulund, a former Amazon director of product management who is now managing director of investment firm Vangal, said that he has been in touch with current AWS employees who have expressed worries about being laid off.

Mulund said that Jassy is correct that the layoffs are being fueled by culture, but it’s not quite the culture that Jassy described. Mulund said the issue is that Amazon, along with every hyperscaler, hired a lot of people in 2020 and 2021 and paid them better than many existing employees in identical roles.

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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