Amazon’s back in the headlines—again—for layoffs. Some folks at Amazon Web Services (AWS) got an internal email that set off alarms about more job cuts. The email even came with a calendar invite for a big company announcement, but then Amazon yanked the whole thing. That just made everyone more anxious, and not just in the U.S.—people across different regions started worrying.
Word is, Amazon plans to cut up to 16,000 jobs in this next round. That’s on top of the layoffs they did late last year.
So, here’s what happened:
On Tuesday, a handful of AWS employees got an email with the subject "Send Project Dawn email," plus a calendar invite for a meeting at 5 a.m. Pacific Time (that’s 6:30 p.m. in India) on January 28. Not long after, the invite disappeared. No explanation, just gone. Naturally, people started guessing the message went out too soon.
Email seemed to come from Colleen Aubrey
Business Insider says the email seemed to come from Colleen Aubrey, who’s a Senior VP at AWS Solutions. Maybe her assistant sent it, nobody’s sure. The email didn't flat-out mention layoffs, but the timing and wording made it pretty obvious. Aubrey wrote that this was part of Amazon’s long-term plan to cut down on layers, give people more ownership, and kill off useless bureaucracy—basically, to speed things up for customers.
The message spelt: “This is a continuation of the work we’ve been doing for more than a year to strengthen the company by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy, so that we can move faster for customers.”
It also said that colleagues in places like the US, Canada, and Costa Rica had already been told if they were losing their jobs, which made it sound like more cuts were coming—and soon.
India did not show up in the email, but let’s be real—Indian teams have felt the impact before. Reports say layoffs might hit AWS, retail, Prime Video, and HR next. Back in October 2024, Amazon cut nearly 14,000 jobs as part of a bigger plan to slash 30,000 positions worldwide.
People inside Amazon started wondering if AI had messed up and sent the email early. One employee even joked, “Looks like they wanted to use AI to send an email tomorrow and instead it sent a calendar invite today.” With Amazon pouring money into AI and automation, the worry about more layoffs just keeps growing.
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