Amazon is eliminating a small number of roles in its Communications and Sustainability departments, according to an internal memo viewed by TechCrunch.
Per the memo, these cuts appear related to Amazon’s controversial return to office policy. In September, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy notified employees that they would be expected to return to the office five days per week beginning in 2025, but the decision sparked blowback from employees.
“We identified some roles that were too narrowly scoped or that introduced unnecessary layers, where we couldn’t solve the challenge by flattening the structure or shifting workloads,” wrote SVP Drew Herdener in the memo seen by TechCrunch. “To address this and do the right thing for the business, we’re eliminating a small number of roles in Communications and Sustainability.”
Herdener referenced a recent meeting with Jassy, where the CEO said that reducing company headcount was not a goal of reorganizing the workforce; Herdener claims that the overall headcount of his department will remain unchanged once Amazon rehires for some of these roles at lower levels.
When reached by TechCrunch, Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser declined to tell TechCrunch how many jobs were eliminated or provide comment by press time. The laid off employees will receive “financial support, benefit continuation, and job placement assistance,” per the memo.
These cuts in sustainability and corporate responsibility roles come less than two weeks after President Donald Trump was inaugurated. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had a close-up seat at the inauguration, sitting close behind Trump and alongside other tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Sergey Brin. Bezos, like other prominent tech founders, donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
The layoffs at Amazon stem from a restructuring project that began before Trump’s election. But the relationship between Bezos and the new administration could be a harbinger of future corporate moves at Amazon. Since Trump took office, Amazon has already cancelled some diversity and inclusion initiatives, which have also been targeted by the new administration.
Trump’s administration has already reversed sustainability initiatives at a federal level. So far, the president has withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, an international treaty addressing climate change. He even declared a national emergency in order to promote the production of fossil fuels, as opposed to more sustainable energy sources.
