Amazon’s recent layoffs have sparked strong criticism from Complete Circle CIO Gurmeet Chadha, who expressed his frustration on X. He commented on the company’s decision to let go of 10,000 more employees after laying off 18,000 in November. Chadha pointed out how Amazon’s HR leaders have fancy titles like “People Experience Head” and “Chief People Officer,” while calling employees “families,” calling it all a “drama.”
Amazon is laying off 10000 more people after laying off 18k in November
— Gurmeet Chadha (@connectgurmeet) March 17, 2025
They call their HR heads as People experience head, chief people officer and fancy names.. employees r called families.
Sab drama!!
AI or any disruption which brings misery to ur own people is useless.…
Chadha criticized the idea of using disruptive technology to lay off people, saying that technology should not harm workers’ livelihoods. He stated, “Any innovation that brings misery to employees is useless.” He also referred to the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev, especially his philosophy of “Sarbat da bhalla” (welfare of all), stressing that people’s well-being should be the core of any innovation. “Call me old school, but I value people more than anything else,” he added.
These remarks came as Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy pushes for restructuring to cut down on middle management and improve efficiency. Jassy had initially planned for a 15% reduction in middle management by Q1 2025, but the company has already surpassed this target. In an interview with Bloomberg, Jassy explained that adding more people leads to more middle managers, and while they are well-intentioned, they often add unnecessary layers of decision-making. His goal is to give employees more autonomy and reduce the need for excessive meetings.
Interestingly, Amazon’s move towards fewer managers has been welcomed by Gen Z employees, who prefer self-management over traditional hierarchies. A survey by Robert Walters found that 52% of Gen Z workers want to avoid middle management roles, and 72% are interested in career progression without supervisory responsibilities.
However, Amazon’s return-to-office policy remains controversial. The company requires employees to work in the office five days a week, which AWS CEO Matt Garman supports, saying true innovation is hard to achieve remotely. This has led to protests from employees, many of whom are actively looking for new jobs and writing letters to leadership in protest.
Amazon’s decision to cut down on middle management is part of a broader industry trend called ‘conscious unbossing,’ where companies reduce managerial oversight to encourage individual growth and improve efficiency. Other tech giants like Meta and Google are also making similar changes.
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