In an unprecedented turn of events, Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently faced a round of layoffs. This is a first in the history of AWS, marking a break from the past when even the tumultuous times of the 2008 financial crisis saw no layoffs at Amazon. I would like to share my insights and experiences related to this significant event.
The Announcement
My journey as a full-time software engineer at AWS was barely a month old, fresh from my university graduation, when the startling news of layoffs came through. It wasnât an entirely new phenomenon at Amazon, as several divisions had previously experienced job cuts, mostly because they were not profitable. Hence, a reduction in expenditure was a strategic move towards achieving financial stability. But the AWS scenario was a different ball game. It was a profit hub, contributing approximately 50% of Amazonâs overall earnings. Consequently, layoffs within AWS seemed unwarranted, at least in my initial perspective. But this notion was dispelled when I read from TechCrunch: âAmazon confirms another round of layoffs, impacting 9,000 people in AWS, Twitch and other units.â (March 20, 2023).
This announcement sparked an influx of doubts and questions concerning the criteria for the layoffs. Despite reassurances that our teamâs indispensable product would shield us from the layoffs, my anxiety levels were still heightened, primarily because I was the newest team member. The prospect of being the first exit due to my recent entry was quite nerve-wracking. But I was not the only one feeling the pressure. A surge in the internal Slack channelâs âlayoff-discussion,â with its membership skyrocketing to 60,000. The channel was abuzz with discussions about the impending layoffs, their timing, location, and the general emotional roller-coaster ride that ensued.
The Layoff
The dreaded day, Wednesday, April 26th, 2023, dawned with approximately 8,000 AWS employees receiving their termination emails at precisely 7:00 AM. Barely three minutes later, access to all company resources, including Slack, development environments, and emails, was revoked for those affected. My phone buzzed at 7:05 AM with a heartbreaking message from a close friend and talented engineer who was among the unfortunate ones. My organization had 27 people across 460 leave. 1 was in my team and 2 from our sister team.
While I was about four levels below the decision-making executives, I heard the layoffs were generally orchestrated at the director level. However, the experiences varied across different departments. My analysis of the AWS Cryptography division, where I work, revealed a trend. The layoffs targeted underperformers, employees in non-aligned locations, non-software engineer roles, and SDE 1s (the entry level software engineer role). Non-aligned locations referred to remote employees or those working away from their teams or managers. Two of the best engineers I knew were laid off due to location mismatches.
The possibility of layoffs in our team was quite bewildering, given our productâs vital role as a Tier 0 product crucial to all internal services. Surprisingly, even teams associated with the most profitable AWS services like EC2, Lambda, and S3 experienced layoffs. It appeared as if stringent criteria were set, and anyone failing to meet these criteria was shown the door.