Complete Circle CIO Gurmeet Chadha strongly criticized Amazon’s most recent wave of layoffs, taking to X to voice his annoyance at AI-driven job losses and business jargon. Chadha tweeted, “Amazon is laying off 10000 more people after laying off 18k in November,” in response to the company’s move to lay off more workers. They refer to their HR directors by fancy titles like Chief People Officer, People Experience Head, etc. Workers are referred to as families. Sab drama!
Chadha maintained that disruptive technology should not be used at the expense of people’s livelihoods and took a strong stand against mass layoffs in the name of innovation. “AI is useless, as is any disruption that causes suffering for your own people.”
He also cited Guru Nanak Dev’s “Sarbat da bhalla” (welfare of everyone) concept, emphasizing that any invention should be centered on the benefit of people. “Call me traditional, but I place a higher importance on people than anything else. According to Guru Nanak Devji, the welfare of the people (Sarbat da bhalla) should be at the center of any invention.
Amazon is laying off 10000 more people after laying off 18k in November
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.…
— Gurmeet Chadha (@connectgurmeet) March 17, 2025
Chadha’s comments coincide with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s vigorous reorganization initiatives aimed at cutting middle management and boosting productivity. The corporation has already exceeded Jassy’s initial aim of reducing middle managers by 15% by the first quarter of 2025.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy defended the company’s recent restructuring, emphasizing the drawbacks of excessive middle management. He explained, “When you scale up, you inevitably create more middle managers. While their intentions are good, they often try to leave their mark on everything.”
Jassy framed the strategy as a way to give employees more autonomy and accountability, reducing reliance on multiple management layers. He also took a swipe at corporate bureaucracy, criticizing the prevalence of unnecessary meetings: “You end up with people attending a pre-meeting, for the pre-meeting, for the pre-meeting, leading up to the decision meeting.”
Interestingly, Gen Z employees seem to support this shift. A Robert Walters survey found that 52% of Gen Z workers prefer to avoid middle management roles, and 72% seek career growth without supervisory responsibilities. This generational preference aligns with Amazon’s push for a leaner management structure.
Amazon’s return-to-office policy is nonetheless a source of resentment in spite of this. AWS CEO Matt Garman, who maintains that meaningful innovation is hard to achieve remotely, supports the company’s policy of requiring workers to work in-office five days a week. Employees have reacted negatively to this, though, with many choosing to “rage apply” for new positions and even sending letters to management to voice their disapproval.
Amazon’s move to cut middle managers is in line with a larger industry trend known as “conscious unbossing,” in which businesses lessen managerial supervision in an effort to foster employee development and productivity. Similar changes are also being made by tech behemoths like Google and Meta.
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