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In a move that caught many employees off guard, Amazon began its latest round of job cuts on Tuesday, impacting around 14,000 staff, by sending out text messages.

The unceremonious method of communication left several workers stunned, as they learned about their termination through a message on their phones.

Texts Deliver the Bad News

According to a Business Insider report, two text messages were sent out by the e-commerce giant on Tuesday to notify employees that their roles had been terminated. 

The first message instructed recipients to check their official or personal email accounts before heading to work. The second one directed those who hadn’t received an email to contact the help desk for further information about their employment status.

Insiders familiar with the process revealed in the report that Amazon’s unconventional approach was designed to prevent laid-off staff from arriving at offices only to find that their access badges had been deactivated. With most tech companies operating on badge-based entry systems, similar incidents had become increasingly common during recent mass layoffs at firms such as Google and Tesla.

Clarification on the Scale of Cuts

Earlier reports from Reuters had suggested that the company was planning to cut as many as 30,000 jobs. However, Amazon later clarified that the actual number stood at 14,000. Beth Galetti, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources, explained the decision in a blog post published on Tuesday.

“The reductions we’re sharing today are a continuation of this work to get even stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we’re investing in our biggest bets,” Galetti stated.

She added that affected employees would be supported through the transition period. An internal email accessed by Business Insider confirmed that laid-off workers would continue to receive full pay and benefits for 90 days after termination.

“We didn’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting you throughout this transition, which will include a non-working period with full pay and benefits (as applicable), an offer of a severance package, transitional benefits as applicable by country, and access to several skills trainings as well as external job placement support,” Galetti wrote.

AI and the Future of Work at Amazon

These layoffs come just months after Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had cautioned about the growing impact of artificial intelligence on jobs within the company. The shift toward AI-driven operations, according to Jassy, would inevitably lead to changes in staffing and organisational structures.

Galetti’s comments also hinted that further layoffs could be expected in the near future. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before,” she noted. “Looking ahead to 2026, as Andy talked about earlier this year, we expect to continue hiring in key strategic areas while also finding additional places we can remove layers, increase ownership, and realise efficiency gains.”

The latest round marks Amazon’s first large-scale layoffs in three years. The last company-wide reduction had been rolled out over a five-month period, affecting multiple departments across the tech giant’s vast global network.