‘Heavy Heart’: Indian man starts job hunting after getting laid off from Amazon

After reporting a decline in profits in the previous quarters, e-commerce giant Amazon started the process of firing employees on November 16 in order to implement cost-cutting measures. The company sent emails to the employees requesting the termination of their services without providing any prior notice to them. This week, the company plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs across all departments.

Saurabh Vaidya, an Indian national, was one of those laid off employees who bore the brunt of declining profits at Amazon.

In a LinkedIn post, Vaidya wrote that the tech layoffs at Amazon had affected him, adding that he did so with a "heavy heart." He claimed that the entire Amazon Alexa data science team, of which he was a member, had been fired. Vaidya acknowledged that working at Alexa Privacy had been a dream position for him and was grateful to have been given the chance to do so as an Applied Scientist.

“Unfortunately, with my immigration status, I have limited time to search for and get a new role. For that reason, I am immediately looking for any of the following roles as Applied Scientist, Data Scientist, Machine Learning Engineer, Software Engineer (in ML) on an urgent basis. I encourage us all to take care of ourselves in this difficult time," he wrote on the professional platform.

A similar unfortunate development occurred when an Indian man employed by Meta as a senior technical programme manager was abruptly let go off and sought assistance on LinkedIn. After nine months of employment at Meta, Raju Kadam wrote on LinkedIn that he didn't anticipate being let go because he had "strong performance in all quarters" since joining the company.

He wrote on LinkedIn, “I am on H1-B visa and my clock to leave USA has started today. I am reaching out to all Metamates, connections, LinkedIn community to help me find a job in otherwise I have to leave USA with my kids… My 2 sons (Arjun - superman, Yash -Chicken) are US citizens, and their lives will be impacted.”

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy earlier said that layoffs will continue at the company through 2023. The company announced earlier this week that they are laying off workers from the Devices and Books businesses, which marked the start of the layoff process. Jassy has now disclosed that additional layoffs will take place as Amazon's annual planning process continues into the following year.

He said via a note, "Leaders across the company are working with their teams and looking at their workforce levels, investments they want to make in the future, and prioritizing what matters most to customers and the long-term health of our businesses. This year’s review is more difficult due to the fact that the economy remains in a challenging spot and we’ve hired rapidly the last several years."

Also Read: 'Most difficult decision': Amazon to continue firing employees till next year

Also Read: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy confirms more layoffs coming in 2023, fired nearly 10000 staff this week