According to CNBC, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced the company is laying off about 14,000 corporate employees with more cuts expected soon. During an earnings call last week, Jassy repeated his vision of Amazon operating like the “world’s largest startup” by removing organizational layers. This follows his September appearance in Seattle where he told thousands of sellers the company needs to flatten its structure and eliminate bureaucracy. Jassy, who took over from Jeff Bezos in 2021, has been pushing major cultural changes including a hard return to office work and demands that employees do more with less resources.
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The startup fantasy meets corporate reality
Here’s the thing about calling a company with over 1.5 million employees the “world’s largest startup” – it’s complete nonsense. Startups don’t lay off 14,000 people. They’re usually trying to hire their first dozen employees. Jassy’s using this “startup” language as corporate-speak for “we’re cutting costs and you’d better work harder.”
And let’s be real – when was the last time you heard of a startup demanding everyone return to the office? That’s the exact opposite of how modern startups operate. Most are fully remote or hybrid. Jassy’s version of “startup culture” seems to involve all the pressure and uncertainty of a real startup, but with none of the upside or flexibility.
The morale problem nobody’s talking about
So what happens when you tell remaining employees they need to operate like a startup while simultaneously cutting their colleagues and demanding they do more with less? You get terrified, burned-out workers who spend more time updating their LinkedIn profiles than being productive.
I’ve seen this playbook before at other tech giants. The “do more with less” mantra sounds great in earnings calls, but in practice it means remaining employees inherit the work of three people while worrying they might be next. How exactly does that make anyone move faster or be more innovative?
Jassy’s high-stakes gamble
Basically, Jassy is betting he can squeeze more productivity out of a smaller, more fearful workforce while calling it “startup energy.” It’s a dangerous game. Amazon‘s already facing significant pushback on the return-to-office mandate, and now he’s adding massive job insecurity to the mix.
The timing is particularly brutal coming right before the holidays. And let’s not forget this follows Amazon’s previous round of 18,000 layoffs earlier this year. At what point does “operating like a startup” become “systematically dismantling what made Amazon great”?
Look, every company needs to adapt, but dressing up brutal cost-cutting as some kind of cultural revolution feels disingenuous. If Jassy really wants Amazon to move faster, he might want to consider that terrified employees clinging to their jobs aren’t exactly known for taking bold risks or thinking creatively.
