Amazon begins firing employees across departments, including Alexa and cloud gaming. The company is said to cut nearly 10,000 jobs globally this week. While the tech company hasn’t revealed any information about layoffs yet, impacted employees have taken to social media platforms like LinkedIn to share their distress. There are no reports on how many employees have been impacted by Amazon layoffs but a large chunk of them are Indians, show LinkedIn posts.
Amazon is possibly taking a different approach with layoffs when compared to Twitter and Meta. The company hasn’t revealed official details on the sudden layoffs yet, while both Twitter and Meta had their explanation to share on firing thousands of employees globally. As for Amazon, so far, a lot of employees working outside of the United States and Canada have been impacted. Many among them are Indians holding a H1B visa.
For the unaware, an H1B visa is given to foreign nationals who get a job in the United States. However, if an H1B visa holder is fired, he will only get 60 days time period to look for another job or return to his home country. With the recent layoffs at Twitter, Meta, and now Amazon, many foreign workers, including a large chunk of Indians, are in anguish since they only have 60 days to find a new job if they want to stay back in the United States.
Many former Amazon employees impacted due to layoffs have taken to LinkedIn to look for new jobs and share their layoff stories.
One of the many Indians impacted by Amazon layoffs, Raj Kansagra, former Software Development Engineer II at Amazon Alexa team, is actively looking for a job since he is on an H1B visa. “Today, I found out that I've been laid off. I'm joining many others who are experiencing the feelings that come with losing your dream job. I was with Amazon for 6 years. We have seen Alexa grow from its early days and it's been an incredible journey. I'm proud of what we built together,” Kansagra posted on LinkedIn. “I'm on an H1-B visa so time is of the essence to find something new,” he added in the same post.
Shivani Parate, former Software Development Engineer at Amazon for nearly 2.5 years, has also been laid off. “Unfortunately, I was impacted by today's layoff with 10,000 other Amazonians. It is super hard for all of us and I am still trying to navigate through this, while constrained by the timeline of being on a #visa. I am nothing but grateful for the time I have spent at Amazon, learning and collaborating with some of the brightest folks in the industry,” Parate’s LinkedIn post read.
Another former Software Development Engineer at Amazon’s Alexa AI team, Dixitha Kasturi, has also been impacted with the layoffs. She took to LinkedIn and posted that she lost her job and had limited to find a new job. “And my Amazon journey was cut short. Unfortunately, I was a part of the Amazon layoffs today. I was working as SDE1 under Alexa AI. The layoff was attributed to downsizing/prioritizing projects, my team unfortunately was hit with a 60 per cent layoff. This brings me back to square one and I am now actively looking for SDE / Data Science roles. While my work at amazon revolved around Java, AWS services and briefly dealing with data, I have a good hold of topics in the Data Science domain. As an individual on Student Visa (OPT) I am time bound as well,” Kasturi’s LinkedIn post read.
While the company hasn’t revealed any official details, layoffs have majorly impacted the Alexa team. Saurabh Vaidya, who worked at Amazon as Applied Scientist for Alexa Privacy has also been laid off alongside many other colleagues. “It's with a heavy heart that I announce that I have been impacted by the Amazon #techlayoffs. My entire #datascience team at Amazon Alexa was laid off. Working at Alexa Privacy has been nothing short of a dream job and I'm really grateful to have gotten the opportunity to work as an Applied Scientist. Unfortunately, with my immigration status, I have limited time to search for and get a new role,” his post read.
Besides the United States, many Indians working for Amazon from Canada have also been laid off. Robin Badsara, who worked as Software Development Engineer at the Amazon Canada office has also been laid off. “Hello Network, Unfortunately, I was impacted by the Amazon layoff today. I was part of the Alexa development tech Team…. I am currently in Canada and available for work. If your organization has openings for sources or recruiters, please let me know or direct me to the right one. Thanks,” Badsara’s LinkedIn post read.
After Meta laid off 13 per cent of its workforce, which is around 11,000 people, the company announced to offer immigration support to foreign workers impacted by the layoffs. Amazon hasn’t revealed any details of any such support from the company’s side yet, neither Elon Musk’s Twitter offered immigration support to foreign workers.
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