Amazon lays off 14,000 employees by text message – company uses unprecedented method to announce mass layoffs
Amazon, the most powerful tech giants on the planet, fired more than 14,000 employees by sending them a simple text message… As shameful as what your ex probably did. Zero respect, zero emphaty, no meetings, no calls from human resources, not even a personalized email. Just an SMS, dry, direct, and leaving no space to process it (or to answer it…). the event was revealed by Business Insider, and since then the criticism hasn’t stopped.
It all happened in the early hours of Tuesday. Employees began receiving two consecutive messages. The first asked them to check their email “before going to work”. The second included a support number “in case they had not received the official email”. Is it a way to fire your employees?
According to Amazon, the idea was to prevent employees from arriving at the office and finding their access cards blocked, something that had already happened before in other companies in the sector.
But the explanation didn’t convince anyone, of course.
On social media, many described it as “an inhuman and cold way” of treating their people, and maybe some of them
“After years of work, you find out through a text message. No call. No face. Just a ping on your phone”
Amazon claims that this move is part of a global restructuring (as always happens in those cases…)
Beth Galetti, head of Human Resources, explained in a statement that the goal was “to reduce bureaucracy, eliminate unnecessary layers, and reassign resources to the most strategic projects”. In theory, very rational, in practice, 14,000 people lost their jobs while they slept.
She tried to soften the blow by promising 90 days of full salary, medical coverage, and job search support, but it is enough?
“We are committed to supporting our employees during this transition”
Just a few months ago, Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, had already hinted at what was coming:
“The current generation of artificial intelligence is the most transformative since the Internet”.
And he’s proving it, though not in the most human way.
The company is reorganizing its workforce to focus on areas such as AI, robotics, advanced logistics, and cloud services, while reducing staff in administrative and operational divisions.
Even Amazon confirmed that this round affects 14,000 employees, sources cited by Reuters say the initial plan mentioned up to 30,000 layoffs.
And Galetti herself has already hinted that more adjustments could come in 2026.
This is the third major cut in less than three years… What’s wrong with you, Amazon? Everything point that they are preparing for a much more automated model… even if that means leaving thousands of people (and families) behind.
Tech companies talk about innovation, but often forget the basics: empathy, layoffs were difficult, face-to-face conversations, but now they are automatic notifications or impersonal emails sent by a system.
“Technology can optimize processes, but it should not replace empathy.”
Amazon’s massive layoff is not just a number or a passing story: it’s a sign of where the world of work is headed.
A text message may be fast, yes. But it’s also the reflection of a growing disconnection between companies and the people who make them run.
The future of work is being automated… and perhaps the greatest risk isn’t losing jobs, but losing the humanity with which those decisions are communicated. Because in the end, it doesn’t take that much to look someone in the eye, even for the last time, and say (at least) thank you for everything.
© 2025 Unión Rayo
© 2025 Unión Rayo

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