Amazon employees are frustrated, plan to walk off job over layoffs and work from office mandate

By Ankita GargSeveral tech companies have been conducting mass layoffs to save costs for a long time now. But, it seems that the morale of the workers that are still employed is dropping as they are now concerned about job security and the level of treatment that they are getting at the companies. A report from the Washington Post claims that hundreds of Amazon workers at the company’s Seattle headquarters are planning to walk off the job in the coming week.

“Morale feels like it’s at an all-time low. In meetings and one-on-ones with colleagues, there’s so much uncertainty and lack of clarity from leadership. â€æ It’s an unsettling time to work at Amazon,” an employee who plans to participate in this protest said.

The cited source reported that the employees that organized the protest sent out messages to other workers at the company to participate in this on May 31. This comes just a week after the company’s annual shareholder meeting and frustrations over recently conducted layoffs and the return-to-office policy. There are also concerns over the tech company’s climate commitments.

“Amazon must keep pace with a changing world. To cultivate a diverse, world-class workplace, we need real plans to tackle our climate impact and flexible work options,” the protest group wrote on Twitter.

All this is not surprising because Amazon just recently sacked 9,000 more employees, after removing about 18,000 earlier this year. The layoffs have been done in several departments, including advertising, human resources, Twitch units, and cloud computing. Amazon has also blamed overhiring and uncertain economic conditions for layoffs. So far, the e-commerce giant has fired 27,000 employees if we take both layoffs in the count.

Other tech companies like Meta have also laid off thousands of employees in 2023. Hence, the same is also the situation at Meta, as employees are anxious and upset about the layoffs and the way the company is handling things. The cited source reported that the morale of the remaining employees has plummeted as people who are sitting at the top are receiving big bonuses while the tech company is firing thousands of people citing low revenue growth. Similarly, Google employees are also getting ready for the layoffs that are happening at the company.