🍪 Analaxyz: Not a Good Day to Be Part of Amazon
Hello there, corporate survivors and tech realists. Today we’re talking about Amazon — the empire that once promised endless growth, now shrinking faster than an overstocked warehouse. Between layoffs, AI reorgs, and Twitch scandals, it’s… not a good day to be part of Amazon.
💼 A timeline of cuts
Amazon’s layoffs started in late 2022 when the company paused hiring and slashed 10,000 jobs across Devices, HR, and Retail.
By January 2023, CEO Andy Jassy confirmed more than 18,000 corporate and tech roles would go — around 6% of corporate staff.
Over the next two years, the reductions rippled through Amazon Fresh, Alexa, Prime Video, and AWS, with internal memos citing “efficiency,” “AI,” and “automation.”
Then, in October 2025, Amazon dropped its biggest bomb yet: 14,000 more corporate cuts — roughly 4% of its white-collar workforce — as part of an AI-driven reorganization to “remove layers” and “run like the world’s largest startup.”
📢 “AI will allow us to automate a lot of tasks.” — Andy Jassy, CEO
🦊 Kiki: Translation: fewer humans, more machines, same profits. Efficiency is great until it becomes euphemism for replacement. 🍪 Chip: 😟🤖
📊 Scale and scope
Amazon employs ~1.5 million people worldwide. About 350 K of those are corporate — and that’s where the deepest cuts hit.
Between 2022 and 2025, roughly 40 K corporate roles vanished.
Reports from Reuters and The Washington Post note that while warehouse staff stay relatively stable, white-collar positions are being “flattened” in the name of agility and AI-driven productivity.
📢 “We’re realizing enough AI-driven productivity gains to support a substantial reduction in force.” — EMARKETER analyst Sky Canaves
🦊 Kiki: Amazon isn’t shrinking because it’s struggling — it’s shrinking because it can. The AI era gives companies permission to call mass layoffs “innovation.” 🍪 Chip: 😬📉
🎮 Amazon Games: New World team hit, MMO plans scaled back
As part of the new corporate layoffs, Amazon made significant cuts inside Amazon Game Studios and is halting much of its first-party AAA MMO development. The studio said New World: Aeternum will receive no further content updates (servers to remain online through 2026 with limited maintenance). This marks a strategic pivot away from internally built MMOs while the company focuses elsewhere.
📢 “We have made the difficult decision to halt a significant amount of our first-party AAA game development.” — Amazon Games statement reported in the press.
🦊 Kiki: When your flagship MMO loses its roadmap overnight, that’s not iteration — that’s retreat. Players deserve stability, not a sunset timer. 🍪 Chip: 😞🕹️
🧑💼 Inside the culture shift
Internally, morale is sliding. Former employees describe a corporate maze of “pointless meetings” and “middling middle managers.” Strict return-to-office policies and constant restructuring have eroded Amazon’s old “builder culture.”
On LinkedIn, posts from ex-staff vent frustration over communication gaps and opaque layoff processes. Yet, investors seem satisfied — Amazon’s stock ticked up after the October 2025 announcement.
📢 “Wall Street rewards efficiency; employees pay the price.” — HR Grapevine commentator
🦊 Kiki: When your stock goes up because thousands lost their jobs, that’s not market confidence — that’s moral inflation. 🍪 Chip: 💸😔
🤖 The AI reorganization
Jassy and HR SVP Beth Galetti describe Amazon’s transformation as an “AI-driven reset.” Teams are merging, processes automated, and new generative-AI tools replacing coordination layers.
Departments affected include Devices, Alexa, Advertising, Prime Video, HR, Operations, Games and AWS — many of which once symbolized Amazon’s innovation.
📢 “Our goal is efficiency — remove layers, increase ownership, and run like the world’s largest startup.” — Beth Galetti
🦊 Kiki: Running like a startup with 1.5 million employees is like calling a whale “slim.” You can’t flatten culture with spreadsheets. 🍪 Chip: 🐋📊
💬 Public and worker reaction
Reactions have been mixed. Some investors applaud the cuts as “mature management.” Employees call it betrayal.
Unions and watchdogs question Amazon’s transparency, especially around severance and rehiring policies. Meanwhile, Wall Street shrugs — proving once again that job losses are just another KPI.
📢 “It reflects a wider tech trend — flattening workforces despite healthy profits.” — The Washington Post
🦊 Kiki: Tech once promised to build the future; now it just optimizes the present. Growth isn’t infinite — but empathy could’ve been. 🍪 Chip: 🫤💔
🎥 Twitch in crisis (Amazon’s other headache)
While corporate cuts dominate headlines, Amazon’s streaming arm Twitch is burning through scandals. First came the Emiru assault at TwitchCon 2025 — a security failure that sparked outrage after the streamer was grabbed by a fan on camera. Then, creators Nina Lin and Zoe Spencer faced bans (and lightning-fast unbans) for groping another participant live on stream. The result? Accusations of double standards and a full-blown accountability crisis.
📢 “If the genders were reversed, this would be a Netflix documentary and a lifetime ban.” — Community comment
🦊 Kiki: Amazon is cutting thousands in HR and trust & safety while its biggest platform can’t handle basic accountability. No AI model patches human decency. 🍪 Chip: 😡📺
Stay grounded — your badge doesn’t make you safe from the algorithm.
Keep human — empathy isn’t inefficient.
And remember — when “efficiency” replaces “people,” even the world’s largest startup starts to look heartless.
— Leo
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