An Amazon employee, claiming to be a senior machine learning scientist, has expressed profound confusion over their recent layoff in a detailed Reddit post, highlighting apparent contradictions in the company's staffing decisions amid a major wave of job cuts.
The post, shared on a subreddit for Amazon workers, comes as the e-commerce giant confirmed it is eliminating approximately 16,000 corporate roles globally in its latest restructuring effort. This follows an earlier round of 14,000 layoffs in October 2025, bringing the total to around 30,000 positions affected since last year.
Amazon employee's shared his experience at the company
In the anonymous Reddit thread, the user – who identifies as an L5 Scientist with a PhD and nearly a decade of experience in machine learning, claims to being let go after almost four years at Amazon. The employee says that they have been working on a multi-million-dollar contract for an external client, where they single-handedly developed an end-to-end demo since September 2025.
"I’ve been working alone on this project... I built the end-to-end demo and wrote detailed documentation and onboarding steps so others could ramp up," the post states. The employee mentions consistently putting in 50–55 hours per week, including evenings and weekends, to meet deadlines for a project due in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Despite the project's large scope, their small team of six scientists faced headcount constraints. The manager's request for additional staff was partially approved, with only two positions in India moving forward to interviews, while US roles remained pending. Yet, the employee was laid off, even though they possessed the most comprehensive knowledge of the training and inference pipeline.
Performance and team dynamics questioned
The post emphasises that the layoff does not appear performance-related. The employee contrasts their expertise with junior L4 colleagues, some recent graduates unfamiliar with basic tools like the command line or rsync, who often relied on internal AI tools for code generation – leading to frequent bugs that the senior scientist helped resolve.
"My manager had already assigned me several critical tasks for the next few weeks," they write, underscoring their integral role. Headcount was so tight that extended PTO (paid time off) required managerial notification, and even short breaks during holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas drew disapproval. One team member is set for four weeks of leave starting mid-February 2026, raising further concerns about staffing amid the project's demands.
"I'm extremely confused about this layoff... Given all of this, I’m really struggling to understand why I was selected for layoff. It just doesn’t add up," the post concludes.
Amazon is cutting off 16,000 jobs
Amazon's confirmation of the 16,000 job cuts aligns with CEO Andy Jassy's ongoing drive to reduce bureaucracy and redirect resources towards artificial intelligence and efficiency initiatives. The reductions primarily affect corporate roles, including those in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Prime Video, retail, and other divisions, as the company seeks to streamline operations in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.
In a blog post, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, stated: “The reductions we are making today will impact approximately 16,000 roles across Amazon, and we're again working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted.” Affected employees are offered severance, outplacement services, and continued health benefits where applicable.
