Amazon is once again in the headlines for laying off thousands of employees, and not everyone is happy about it. Gurmeet Chadha, CIO of Complete Circle, has openly criticized the move, calling out the hypocrisy of corporate jargon and fancy job titles.
Employees Are Called Families… Sab Drama!’
Chadha took to social media to express his frustration over Amazon’s decision to lay off 10,000 more employees, following the 18,000 job cuts in November. He slammed the company for calling their HR heads “People Experience Head” and “Chief People Officer,” while treating employees as just numbers.
His message was clear: Calling workers “family” while laying them off in thousands is nothing but drama.
He also raised a big moral question about AI-driven job cuts, saying:
“AI or any disruption which brings misery to your own people is useless.”
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.…
Amazon’s Big Restructuring Plan
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been aggressively restructuring the company to reduce middle management and increase efficiency. His goal was to cut 15% of middle managers by Q1 2025, but the company has already gone beyond this target.
Jassy defended the decision, saying:
“You add a lot of people, and you end up with a lot of middle managers who want to put their fingerprint on everything.”
“So you end up with people attending pre-meetings, for the pre-meeting, for the pre-meeting, for the decision meeting.”
Sounds exhausting, right?
His vision is to make Amazon a more efficient, self-managed workplace, where employees don’t have to depend on layers of managers to get things done.
Is Amazon Losing Its Human Touch?
Chadha believes that innovation should not come at the cost of people’s jobs. He referred to Guru Nanak Devji’s philosophy of “Sarbat da bhalla” (welfare of all), arguing that businesses should value people over profits.
“Call me old school, but I value people more than anything else.”
His words reflect what many employees feel—companies talk about “values” and “culture,” but when the time comes, profits matter more than people.
How Are Employees Reacting?
Many Gen Z employees seem okay with Amazon’s shift toward fewer managers. A survey by Robert Walters found that 52% of Gen Z workers prefer fewer management roles, and 72% want career growth without being supervisors.
But not everyone is happy. Amazon’s strict return-to-office policy (5 days a week) is also causing frustration. Many employees are “rage applying” for new jobs and even writing letters to protest.
AWS CEO Matt Garman insists that true innovation can’t happen remotely, but workers aren’t convinced. The debate over work-life balance vs. company efficiency is far from over.
Is This the Future of Work?
Amazon isn’t the only company doing this. Other tech giants like Meta and Google are also reducing middle managers in a trend called “conscious unbossing.” The idea is to eliminate unnecessary oversight and make employees more independent.
But the big question remains:
Is this really about making companies more efficient, or just a way to cut costs at the expense of workers?
Amazon’s decision shows the changing reality of corporate work, where job security is never guaranteed, even in the biggest companies.
What do you think? Is Amazon making a smart move, or is this just another case of big companies prioritizing money over people?