Draft layoffs email sent by mistake to Amazon employees
Amazon employees were left confused and anxious after a draft email outlining a new wave of job cuts was accidentally shared inside the company.
The message appeared late on Tuesday as part of a meeting invite sent to workers at Amazon Web Services (AWS). It was written by Colleen Aubrey, a senior vice president at AWS, and referred to layoffs affecting staff in the US, Canada and Costa Rica. The invite — titled “Project Dawn,” Amazon’s internal name for the cuts — was quickly cancelled, but not before the email spread internally.
In the message, Aubrey described the cuts as part of an ongoing effort to reshape the company. “This is a continuation of the work we've been doing for more than a year to strengthen the company by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy, so that we can move faster for customers,” the email said. She added: “Changes like this are hard on everyone. These decisions are difficult and made thoughtfully as we position our organization and AWS for future success.”
The email suggested that the affected employees had already been told, and mentioned a separate note from Amazon’s head of human resources, Beth Galetti. That message does not appear to have been sent, adding to the sense that the communication went out before plans were finalized. Amazon declined to comment publicly on the incident.
Amazon confirmed in October that it was cutting 14,000 corporate roles, and reports in recent weeks had pointed to further layoffs being imminent. A former employee said staff had been expecting additional job losses for some time, with internal estimates suggesting total cuts could reach around 30,000 roles by the time the process ends later this year.
The company has been trying to rein in costs after aggressive hiring during the pandemic. AWS and Amazon’s retail operations are thought to be among the areas most affected this time. Workers who lose their jobs are allowed to apply for other internal roles, though openings are limited, and severance is being offered based on length of service.
Since Andy Jassy took over from founder Jeff Bezos as chief executive, Amazon has carried out repeated rounds of layoffs and tightened workplace rules. Employees are now required to work in the office five days a week, and the company has also looked at cutting smaller expenses, including monitoring mobile phone reimbursements.
The broader tech sector has seen sustained job losses since 2022, with companies such as Meta, Google and Microsoft all making significant cuts. Industry tracker Layoffs.fyi estimates around 700,000 tech workers have lost their jobs globally over the past four years.
The mistaken email landed on the same day Amazon announced it would shut its remaining Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go grocery stores, shifting focus to expanding Whole Foods. Separately, US delivery giant UPS said it plans to cut up to 30,000 jobs this year, partly linked to scaling back lower-margin work for Amazon.
