As per several news reports, Amazon is planning to lay off 14,000 employees in managerial positions in early 2025. This decision is reportedly part of a larger exercise to cut costs between USD 2.1 billion and USD 3.6 billion annually, INDMoney reports.
According to the INDMoney report, the move would downsize Amazon’s global workforce by 13 per cent, and reduce the number of managers to 91,936.
While there is no official confirmation from the company regarding this plan, Andy Jassy, current Chief Executive Officer of Amazon, revealed in a memorandum to the company’s employees in September 2024 that he wants to “flatten” the company’s hierarchy and increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers in the corporation, Times of India reports.
“So, we’re asking each team organization to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15 per cent by the end of Q1 2025. Having fewer managers will remove layers and flatten organizations more than they are today,” he wrote.
He touted this decision, explaining that fewer middle managers will enable teams to move faster, increase ownership, decrease bureaucracy, and empower them to make customers’ lives better.
“We will do this thoughtfully, and our PxT team will work closely with our leaders to evolve our organizations to accomplish these goals over the next few months,” Jassy announced in the memo titled “Strengthening our culture and teams.”
