Amazon Bungles Layoff Plan after an internal email mistakenly alerted Amazon Web Services (AWS) employees about planned job cuts hours before any official announcement. The Amazon Bungles Layoff Plan incident caused confusion and anxiety among staff across multiple regions.
On Tuesday, several AWS employees received a commiseration email and a team-wide meeting invite that appeared to confirm layoffs scheduled for Wednesday morning. The email, signed by Colleen Aubrey, Senior Vice President of Applied AI Solutions at AWS, stated that affected employees in the U.S., Canada, and Costa Rica had already been informed—though this had not happened.
Soon after employees flagged the message on internal Slack channels, Amazon canceled the meeting invitation. The email referred to the layoffs as “Project Dawn” and cited the company’s long-term strategy and future growth.
Reuters had earlier reported that Amazon planned to lay off thousands of corporate employees this week, but the company has not officially confirmed the move. Roles across AWS, retail, Prime Video, and human resources may face cuts.
Amazon previously reduced about 14,000 jobs in October as part of a broader plan to trim 30,000 corporate roles. The company linked those cuts to increased use of artificial intelligence.
Amazon has not yet responded publicly to the email error.
