Amazon’s hardcore culture change is becoming a case study in employee-employer relations in the age of AI.
Companies from AT&T to Walmart are following Amazon’s lead in cracking down on efficiency and accountability. The changes at Amazon, which employs more than twice as many employees as Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Meta combined, will have far-reaching implications for U.S. workers.
While some impacts will impact workers immediately, such as strict performance reviews, return-to-office policies, and large-scale layoffs, other changes will take longer to impact employees’ daily work and personal lives. Twelve Amazon employees told Business Insider what life is like as they adjust to the new normal.
Due to layoffs, remaining employees are at increased risk
Few changes have a bigger impact than layoffs.
When Joanelle Cobos was fired from her role as Amazon’s design manager last October, she decided to take a few months to reset. After intensifying her search in January, she struggled to land an interview. She estimates there is less than a year left before the funding runs out.
“My job search feels like a ticking time bomb,” she said.
After doubling its workforce from 2019 to 2021, Amazon is laying off more than 57,000 workers, with more than half of those layoffs occurring in October and January. The layoffs also included managers, as part of an effort to reduce the number of managers and increase the employee-to-manager ratio by 15%.
Laid-off workers are being forced to navigate a labor market where hiring is slowing. Some have found new roles, while others are still looking.
The impact of layoffs goes beyond just those who lose their jobs. Fear of further cuts Urging some employees, who already face rigorous performance reviews, to step up their work to protect their jobs. and avoid being incorporated into performance improvement plans.
A Berlin-based employee said recent job cuts had contributed to a culture of “knocking your elbows out and trying to survive.”
“I’m very nervous,” he said shortly after the layoffs in January. “Everyone’s worried.”
Andrew Z. Chen, a New York City-based software engineer, said he personally wasn’t too worried about job security — no one on his team was affected — but the layoffs in January were still felt. He scheduled a company book club on the day of his layoff, and one employee who volunteered was laid off.
“Most of the discussion in the book turned into a discussion of layoffs,” he said.
For many, navigating the company’s recent changes means accepting some degree of uncertainty.
“I think many employees are adopting a more pragmatic mindset,” said Sarthak Gupta, a data scientist in Seattle, “accepting that some factors are outside of an individual’s control, but focusing on making an impact and doing their best work.”
Return-to-office policies are unevenly implemented
Amazon moved to a 3-day office policy in 2023, followed by a 5-day office policy in January 2025. In December, the company rolled out a dashboard to help administrators track office attendance.
One Amazon employee in his 20s at the company’s Seattle headquarters said that after commuting an hour to work, he was often asked to stay late at the office, leaving him with less time and energy for non-work activities.
“Oh, I think I’m the most burnt out I’ve ever been in my life,” he said.
The employee said he is currently actively seeking a more flexible role outside of Amazon. But he acknowledges that in a tough job market, such opportunities are limited, at least within big tech companies.
A Los Angeles-based product manager who was fired from Amazon last October said that while some employees were given the flexibility to work from home under certain circumstances, managers strictly enforced the company’s five-day office policy.
For Mr. Gupta, returning to the office worked to his advantage. He lives about a seven-minute walk from his office. He pays about $2,700 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, including parking, and said there are cheaper options further afield, but it’s worth it to be nearby.
“The short commute allowed me to focus on building my career without the fatigue of traveling back and forth,” said Mr. Gupta.
Read more about people at corporate crossroads
AI is reshaping how employees work
Chen said he has been encouraged to use AI tools, but has never been forced to. For him, AI has become the most efficient way to get work done, even if it sometimes feels “soul-sucking.”
“I spend most of my time talking to AI agents,” Chen says. “Right now, I can’t imagine spending a day at Amazon without using AI.”
Under CEO Andy Jassy, Amazon has invested billions in Anthropic and OpenAI, and plans to spend up to $200 billion building AI this year. Mr. Jassy said last year that he expected companies to eventually “shrink” the size of their workforces due to the increased efficiency provided by AI. Some employees are now partially evaluated by how often they use AI tools.
The Los Angeles-based former product manager said productivity has improved significantly for software engineers, but other roles like his own have been “mixed.” He said that while AI can assist with tasks such as writing, the output is not always thoroughly reviewed, resulting in occasional errors in documents, emails and Slack messages.
He said that with AI becoming a frequent topic of conversation in the workplace, many of his colleagues shared concerns that not using the tools would expose them to increased scrutiny or fall behind professionally, which shaped how they approached AI.
“What drove most adoption was fear of irrelevance, not excitement about technological advances,” he said.
Jane Zhang contributed to the report.