COP26: Jeff Bezos blasts people who ‘hanker for good old days’

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Up to 10,000 Amazon workers may be facing the sack after a business slowdown, as a third of Britons report seeing their own company’s headcount decrease. The retail giant announced on Wednesday that it is shedding workers in an attempt to control costs, with job cuts reportedly slated for its retail, devices and human-resources divisions. The job cuts are part of a wider trend, with Facebook’s parent company Meta last week announcing plans to reduce staff by 13 percent, equal to roughly 11,000 jobs, while Elon Musk confirmed the week prior he would cut Twitter’s staff numbers in half. This comes as a new study, seen by Express.co.uk, revealed that nearly one in three Britons (29 percent) are looking for other work as they are not currently paid enough to cope with the cost of living crisis.

A spokesman for Amazon said on Wednesday: “Given the current macroeconomic environment (as well as several years of rapid hiring), some teams are making adjustments, which in some cases means certain roles are no longer necessary. We don’t take these decisions lightly, and we are working to support any employees who may be affected.”

The cuts’ main focus is reportedly the company’s devices and services divisions, and would affect roughly 3 percent of its office staff, while not impacting its hundreds of thousands of warehouse workers. These are the divisions responsible for Amazon devices such as the Kindle and Alexa.

Amazon’s share price has fallen by more than 40 percent this year as it grapples with a slowdown in online sales.

National research commissioned by business advisory Trachet and revealed by Express.co.uk showed that 33 percent of British workers have seen headcounts in their workplace fall, and their workload increase, over the last 12 months.

Many workers appear to fear burnout from the extra workload, with 62 percent of Brits reporting that they would be happy to compromise their career aspirations or business goals in order to preserve their mental health.

Amazon’s job cuts are equal to one percent of their 1.5million-strong workforce. How many of these are in the UK is not yet known – although, in July, Amazon announced it would create over 4,000 new permanent jobs in the UK this year.

In a message to employees, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and services Dave Limp said to employees that some teams and roles were no longer necessary, adding that they had been informed on Tuesday. However, some employees have expressed frustration, saying they found out about the job cuts via news reports about the layoffs which emerged on Monday.

A severance package for workers reportedly includes separation payment, transitional benefits and external job-placement support, although the specifics of these have not yet been confirmed.

Last month, the world’s largest online retailer forecast comparatively weak growth for the next three months, in what would be typically the busiest Christmas period. This came at the same time as its operating expenses saw a significant increase.

The costs reached $355.3billion (£308 illion) for nine months up to the end of September this year – up roughly $44billion from $311billion (£269.7billion) during the same period last year. Microsoft similarly announced “structural adjustments”, cutting around 1,000 jobs last month.

The GMB Union, which represents Amazon’s workers, suggested that the raft of new job cuts was evidence that technology companies have a poor record for treating their employees well.

Andy Prendergast, the national secretary of GMB union’s commercial services section, said: “The idea that the new tech companies are somehow better than what came before is increasingly being exposed as a myth.

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“Coming hot on the heels of the job cuts at Twitter and Facebook, they are being exposed as having if anything a worse hire and fire ethos than the corporations they replaced.”

There is significant pressure on those at the top to steer the ship through difficult economic times. According to Trachet’s research, 20 percent of British workers felt their firm was too slow to react and adapt to the approaching recession, which is what resulted in a loss of staff.

Meanwhile, 34 percent of British business leaders reported suffering from burnout and struggling to keep a positive company culture alive over the last 12 months of turbulence.

Trachet’s founder and CEO, Claire Trachet, said: “With mass redundancies in the sector causing employees to fear for their financial futures, founders must do their best to ensure their offices remain positive environments where people want to work – even if that means bringing in a specialist to fulfil this role.”

Express.co.uk has contacted Amazon for comment.

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