‘Employees Are Called Families...Sab Drama’: CIO Slams Amazon Layoffs, Calls AI That Causes Misery Useless
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's aggressive restructuring efforts to cut middle management and boost efficiency coincide with Gurmeet Chadha's comments.
Ankush Pandey
Complete Circle CIO Gurmeet Chadha has taken to X to voice his displeasure with corporate jargon and AI-driven job cuts, a reaction to Amazon's most recent round of layoffs. "Amazon is laying off 10000 more people after laying off 18k in November," Chadha wrote in response to the company's announcement to lay off additional workers. Their HR directors are referred to by fancy titles like Chief People Officer and People Experience Head. Families are the employees. What drama!
Chadha argued that disruptive technology shouldn't come at the expense of people's livelihoods and that mass layoffs in the name of innovation should be strongly discouraged. "AI or any disruption that causes suffering for your own people is pointless."
He also cited Guru Nanak Dev's "Sarbat da bhalla" (welfare of all) philosophy, emphasising that any innovation should be centered on the welfare of people. "Call me traditional, but I place a higher value 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 innovation.
Chadha's comments coincide with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's vigorous reorganization initiatives aimed at cutting middle management and boosting productivity. The company has already exceeded Jassy's initial goal of reducing middle managers by 15% by the first quarter of 2025.
Amazon is laying off 10000 more people after laying off 18k in November
— Gurmeet Chadha (@connectgurmeet) March 17, 2025
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.…
Jassy defended the decision in a Bloomberg interview, saying, "You end up with a lot of middle managers when you add a lot of people." And all of those middle managers want to put their fingerprints on everything, even though they mean well.
Instead of depending on several levels of management, the strategy aims to give workers more autonomy so they can take responsibility for their work. With the words, "So you end up with these people being in the pre-meeting, for the pre-meeting, for the decision meeting," Jassy even attacked the corporate culture of holding too many pre-meetings.
Interestingly, Gen Z workers, who prefer self-management over traditional hierarchies, have embraced Amazon's move to have fewer managers. A Robert Walters survey revealed that 72% of Gen Z employees desire career advancement free from supervisory duties, and 52% would rather avoid middle management positions.
The return-to-office policy of Amazon is still a source of resentment in spite of this. Matt Garman, the CEO of AWS, argues that true innovation is hard to achieve remotely, which is why the company requires employees to work in-office five days a week. Employee backlash has resulted from this, though, with many choosing to "rage apply" for new positions and even vent in letters to management.
Amazon's decision to eliminate middle managers is in line with a larger trend in the industry known as "conscious unbossing," in which businesses lessen managerial oversight in an effort to foster individual development and productivity. Technology behemoths like Google and Meta are also changing in a similar way.
