In an effort to keep growing, Amazon has announced that it will be laying off thousands of workers. While the company plans to hire aggressively in areas like cloud computing and machine learning, they do not plan to add any full-time roles in the United States anytime soon. So, if you’re concerned about your job security at Amazon, or you’re just thinking about what lies ahead for this tech titan, read on to learn more about their layoffs and what they mean for Amazon employees now and in the future.
Introduction
It’s been all over the news lately: Amazon has been slashing their workforce, with around 130,000 employees being laid off in the past six months. Amazon is one of the top five employers in America and these mass layoffs will have a huge impact on the economy. But what’s really going on? Why are these layoffs happening? How are they impacting the economy? What can we do about it? Will I be next? How much time do I have before my job is replaced by automation? We should demand that politicians make it illegal for companies to use automation as an excuse for getting rid of jobs. Companies shouldn’t be able to let people go simply because they’re replacing them with machines. In this blog post, we’ll talk more about how these layoffs are affecting the American economy and what you can do if you think you’re next.
What caused the layoffs?
CEO Jeff Bezos announced a company-wide restructuring program in a memo to employees on Tuesday. In his announcement, Bezos said the plan would create a new, streamlined organisation and automate processes that are common across our businesses.
The company had more than 541,900 full-time and part-time employees worldwide at the end of September. It was not immediately clear how many people were laid off or when the cuts will be completed. The layoffs come as some retail chains, such as Macy’s and JCPenney, close stores in response to an increasing shift toward online shopping. about high turnover rates for warehouse workers due to the demanding working conditions.
A spokesperson for Amazon released this statement: We want all of our hardworking associates to know we appreciate their dedication.
Who was affected?
A number of agencies had a handful of clients with an Amazon logo on their homepage, but when the news broke, these clients disappeared from the website overnight. By noon that same day, every one of these clients was gone and their sites were either taken offline or redesigned by another company. So what really happened? It’s still unclear, but one thing is for certain: not all the layoffs are due to competition.
How did Amazon handle it?
It seems that Amazon is in the midst of a mass layoff. However, according to Amazon’s VP of Operations, there are no job cuts occurring at the company. In fact, they are on track for one of their best years ever. So what’s going on? It turns out that Amazon isn’t actually laying anyone off, but instead has begun a process called purposeful Darwinism, which means it will be cutting benefits and potentially reducing pay for some employees. These changes will only affect a small percentage of workers, with most people still getting benefits like retirement plans or sick days. These adjustments have been taken as necessary to stay competitive with other tech companies in Silicon Valley such as Google and Facebook who offer generous employee packages. It doesn’t seem that Amazon would need to make these changes if they weren’t struggling financially. It’s possible that Amazon has gone through more debt than previously reported by using funds from subsidiary lines of business such as Whole Foods Market or Zappos.
There are many speculations about why this could happen, but we may never know the truth until time passes and we see how well Bezos does his business deals next year.
What can we learn from this?
We can learn that the days of 9-5 job security are long gone. Workers in the US and many other countries around the world are working longer hours for less pay, with fewer benefits, and little to no job security. What does this mean for us? It means we need to stay alert and on our toes if we want to keep our jobs and make sure we’re paid what we deserve and can still go to that vacation in one of Albay tourist spots that we’ve planning for. One way to do this is by joining a union or workers’ centre where you work. They’ll help you understand your rights as an employee, show you how unions help build strong communities and much more. Some great resources for finding one near you: International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers or Laborers’ International Union of North America. These organisations can help you find out which type of union is right for you, give you legal advice and more.
When times are tough, it’s important to have friends who have your back. I hope these organisations will be there when things get rough.
