Tzu-Ting Wang’s Post

Amazon’s planned major layoffs mark a turning point for tech: efficiency takes priority over expansion. Will this ripple reshape the industry’s talent dynamics and redeployment strategies? Devesh Kumar writes. https://lnkd.in/egCcanhE

Adding a bit on Scott Pierce's great advice for those affected by Amazon’s recent layoffs: I know how tough this moment can feel...the mix of uncertainty, frustration, and relief all at once. It’s a lot. A few reminders from someone who’s been through it: - Take a breath: Give yourself space to decompress before diving into next steps. - Collect your wins: Pull together key metrics, stories, and examples while they’re still fresh. They’ll make your resume and interviews so much stronger later. - Reconnect: Reach out to teammates, mentors, and cross-functional partners. These connections matter more than you realize. - Ask for help: Most of us in the product and tech world have been through a version of this, and we mean it when we say we’re here for you. If you’ve been affected (by this round or earlier ones) and want to grab coffee, talk through next steps, or just get your footing again, please reach out. Seriously. I’ve been there and I’m happy to help however I can.

I haven’t heard about how it all went down, nor the extent for people of our community, but if you’re affected by the Amazon layoffs, I’m so sorry and angry. As a former Amazonian, there’s no sugarcoating this—14,000 people just had their lives upended right before the holidays, and calling it an “efficiency gain” doesn’t make it hurt less. You didn’t fail. The system failed you. Amazon made record profits and chose to convert your salaries into something else. That’s a business decision, not a referendum on your talent. What you can do right now: - Before you sign anything, wait for at least a week. If you feel you need a lawyer to review your severance (if any) the $300-500 is worth every penny - File for unemployment TODAY - Designers, scrub and archive your best before you lose access - Go ahead and light up “Open to Work”. There’s zero stigma in late 2025 The job market is weird and stupid but navigable. Tech unemployment is 2.9%. Companies are hiring, just not always where you’d expect. Healthcare, fintech, government, climate tech all need what you know how to do. Remember, all companies are tech companies now, tap into what interests you. If it’s beekeeping, bias for action the hell out of it. Your experience at Amazon matters. Your skills are valuable. And you will emerge somewhere that actually values stability over quarterly narratives. You’re all cats who land on their feet, we just wish some companies would stop throwing cats. If you need a referral, a resume review, or just someone to talk to—my DMs are open. We take care of our own.

"You didn’t fail. The system failed you. Amazon made record profits and chose to convert your salaries into something else. That’s a business decision, not a referendum on your talent." Scott's post is really apt and has lots of useful advice and insight about the job market. It's useful for _anyone_ who is out of work, not just (but especially for) former Amazonians.

Amazon’s 30,000 layoffs aren’t about cost. They’re about inefficiency. Reuters confirmed it this week - roughly 10% of their corporate staff are being cut. Not factory roles. Corporate ones. The kind that run systems, reports, approvals, operations. Here’s what’s actually happening: Before automation: → Teams spent hours gathering data manually → Managers reviewed dashboards and emailed updates → Layers of admin slowed every decision After automation: → AI does the data prep → Dashboards self-update → Fewer people manage more output It’s not headcount reduction. It’s workflow compression. And that’s the part small–mid-size teams need to pay attention to. Because when big tech trims 30,000 roles, your clients start asking harder questions too: “Why do we still take a week to produce a client report?” “Why are three people managing what one workflow could handle?” I see this daily inside businesses not layoffs, but restructuring through automation. No job cuts. Just better use of human time. That’s the real lesson here: AI doesn’t remove people. It removes friction. 👉🏽 If Amazon’s restructuring around automation, how long before your clients expect the same?

Automation is depriving lots of people their jobs, my heart goes for everyone affected. This calls for career pivots when necessary. Let's normalize up skilling, reskilling, positioning and building a personal brand... because they can take your job from you, no one can take your skills, knowledge or personal brand from you.

Amazon’s culling 30,000 jobs and calling it “efficiency.” It's beyond belief. This level of layoffs, for one of the world's richest men - a man who can afford to holiday in space - is a choice. Amazon just confirmed 14,000 corporate layoffs, with reports saying up to 30,000 roles are at risk, close to 10% of white-collar staff. That’s on top of the 27,000 roles eliminated across 2022–2023. Of course, the memo frames it as getting “leaner,” with 90 days for internal moves and a redirection of spend into... you guessed it - AI. Translation: headcount becomes the piggy bank for infrastructure and margin optics - announced two days before Q3 results on October 30th. Meanwhile, the CEO, Andy Jassy wants Amazon to operate like “the world’s largest start-up.” That sounds inspiring... until you remember this is a 1.5-million-employee behemoth. The rhetoric flatters; the reality displaces. Let’s call it what it is: AI is the alibi, not the only cause. Yes, automation is real. But timing layoffs to coincide with earnings and “de-layering” talking points isn’t about innovation - this is optics and operating leverage. Even bullish analysts describe this moment as a tipping point away from human capital to tech infrastructure. The human cost is sanitised. “Lean” and “fewer layers” read well in a shareholder letter; they land as severance and uncertainty for thousands, right before Christmas. Mixed messages, mixed values. Amazon will still hire 250,000 seasonal workers for the holidays (mostly lower-paid, short-term roles) while trimming corporate teams that carry institutional memory. That’s workforce arbitrage by design. If you lead a board, a business, or a function, here’s the uncomfortable mirror this holds up to all of us: ⚫ Jobs are a privilege to steward, not a variable to game. If AI unlocks productivity, share the gains, don’t just socialise the losses. ⚫ Don’t hide behind the buzzword. If the goal is margin, say margin. If it’s speed, show the design: not just headcount math. ⚫ Protect the centre of gravity. Cutting “middle management” indiscriminately kills the connective tissue that keeps customers served and teams sane. Efficiency without humanity is fragility. Leaders: your brand isn’t what you post; it’s how people experience you when it’s hard. If you’re about to announce “efficiencies,” pair them with clear ethics (who’s protected and why), reskilling at scale, and accountable governance. The future of work cannot and will not be defined by AI. It will be defined by whether the most powerful companies in the world choose to value people as more than a cost line. Today, Amazon chose otherwise. Tomorrow, the rest of us decide if we copy it - or lead. God, I hope it's the latter. At DeBerry Search Associates we turn “efficiency drives” into intelligent redesign. When new capability is needed, we deliver values-led searches for AI-fluent, customer-obsessed operators who scale performance without breaking culture.

Something about this round of Amazon layoffs hits different. I’ve been fairly isolated from most of the cuts up til now (affecting orgs/programs I wasn’t directly involved with). I still have a job, but there are many people I’ve worked with closely for years who were here on Monday, and gone on Tuesday with zero fanfare. For whatever reason, many people in my network, both internally and externally, have been reaching out to me to see if I’m ok. I’ve seen two teams decimated, which seem to be directly related to AI-related efficiencies effectively rendering those roles redundant. So I do feel lucky to still have a job, but I can’t help but wonder for how much longer that will be true. It does feel like, as an industry, we might just all be vibe-coding ourselves out of a job. But back to the layoffs… It’s one thing to lay off whole teams — if a product isn’t working out, you don’t want to fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy. I can even understand the more surgical cuts that have taken place with this round. But the real kicker is the lack of communication. People at Amazon are slacking each other trying to understand who’s still here, and who isn’t. I want to repeat that — there is no good internal communication about this, and low-to-mid-level managers are nearly as in the dark about who’s still here and who isn’t as people who don’t even work at the company. It’s funny — people are being laid off because of AI, but leadership didn’t even think to use AI to help communicate who is gone, and why. I’m sure there will be *some* official communication by the end of the week, but this practice of firing people at 2am Tuesday and leaving it to the individuals to figure everything out is some real Mickey Mouse shit. I’m not usually one for the LinkedIn blog post, and I’m not even really sure who this is for. I guess I felt like screaming into the void. It may not be as helpful as a therapy session with ChatGPT, but at least it was cathartic. Good luck out there everybody… Stay human & stay humble.

Amazon announced their layoffs and typically more happen during these next 2-3 weeks before Thanksgiving, so in light of that... Tomorrow: The Year-End Career Transition Playbook Got laid off? Worried it's coming? Burned out but stuck until January for benefits? Here's what nobody's telling you. Most career advice around layoffs is garbage. "Update your LinkedIn." "Stay positive." "Network more." Cool. But what about the $40K you're leaving on the table because you didn't know you could negotiate severance? Or the benefits cliff you're about to fall off in 6 weeks? Dropping tomorrow: The Year-End Career Transition Playbook What's actually inside: - Negotiating your exit (yes, even after you've been laid off) - Open enrollment isn't boring, it's leverage - "Unlimited PTO" is a scam. Here's how to beat it. - Stacking FMLA, short-term disability, and paid leave (legally) - Out-of-state HQ? Different rules. Use them. - Equity, clawbacks, and executive terms they hope you don't read - Why timing your exit around bonuses and reviews matters more than loyalty DISCLAIMER: I'm not an employment lawyer, benefits expert, or tax specialist. You'll still want to verify specifics with professionals for your situation. But while everyone else is telling you to "trust the process," I'm showing you how the process actually works—and how to work it back. No corporate toxic positivity, no fear-mongering. Just clarity and strategy for designers, leaders, and execs who want to protect their time, money, and sanity going into 2026. Want the tag when it drops? Drop a 🐝 below.

I’m heartbroken to see so many posts from people affected by the latest Amazon layoffs. I’ve been there, and I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone. Seeing reports of people getting layoff texts at 3 AM makes it even harder to read. Two years ago, I was part of the AWS layoffs. I had just welcomed a newborn, rearranged our entire life to prepare for the return-to-office mandate, and then was laid off the day before RTO was set to begin. It’s better for your mental health not to search for logic in a decision like that. There may not have been any. Sometimes you’re just numbers on someone’s spreadsheet. It completely changed my life and honestly it still stings. Some of that change turned out to be for the better, but at the time, it was devastating. When I was in the military, there was a phrase people used to say: “Never love something that can’t love you back.” That lesson has stayed with me ever since, and it applies far beyond the military. Take your PTO. Take the training opportunities. Use the budget your organization sets aside for growth. Invest in yourself, because the truth is, your organization will take everything it can from you, and it will keep moving forward with or without you. There’s more to who you are than your employer or your title. Your worth isn’t defined by the color of your badge or location on an org chart. All this to say... If you’re a security professional impacted by today’s layoffs, reach out. I’ll repost and help however I can.