If you're one of the 16,000 Amazon employees getting laid off, read this
- Reference: 1769682852
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/29/amazon_layoffs/
- Source link:
It's not your fault if you quit your last job because you believed the promises of your new employer. Maybe they offered you more money, more freedom, more challenging and interesting work. Whatever they offered, [1]getting laid off trumps all that. "Is a dream a lie if it don't come true, or is it something worse?" Bruce Springsteen once asked in a song. I'm still not sure exactly what he meant.
Amazon axes 14,000 desk jobs in AI-powered slimming plan [2]READ MORE
It's not your fault if you turned down offers from other employers because you valued the stability of your current workplace, or you liked your bosses and colleagues (a good hang is worth a lot, as one former journalist colleague put it), or thought you were serving a more valuable mission than the one your would-have-been new employer offered. It's not your fault. You made what seemed like the best decision you could've made at the time, given the information you had.
It's hard not to blame yourself. Other people will blame you. Some people you thought were friends will use the moment to take their digs, bring you down a notch, criticize you for being too blind to see the signs. Your family might resent you for no longer being able to support them in the manner to which they were accustomed. If you're taking care of sick relatives, you'll all suffer under the sudden scramble to secure health insurance. But it's not your fault.
Others will be indifferent. The colleagues you left behind, having felt the scythe blade pass inches from their neck, may feel good reason to draw into their shells completely. People who've been through it before may shrug and [3]welcome you to the club .
[4]AWS's inevitable destiny: becoming the next Lumen
[5]Amazon CEO Andy Jassy goes wobbly on AI bubble possibility
[6]AWS raises GPU prices 15% on a Saturday, hopes you weren't paying attention
[7]Jassy taps 27-year Amazon veteran to run AGI org, which is now definitely a thing that exists
On the flip side, some people will surprise you with their offers of introductions, brainstorming sessions, moral and maybe even financial support. Thank those people profusely, and try to pay it forward the next time somebody you know goes through it. Few bucks are better spent than on the beers you buy for a friend who's suddenly knee-deep in the shit.
I know how this goes. I've worked in journalism for most of my career. My profession has shrunk dramatically over the last 20 years as the internet ate all the old revenue models. Craigslist decimated classified ads, Google and Facebook destroyed most of the rest of print advertising, then steadily chipped away at digital news business models, redirecting their massive audiences to whatever made them the most money. Switch to video, the pundits said. Go indie. Learn to code.
[8]
Now a lot of those coding jobs are disappearing too, sacrificed on the altar of AI and ever-increasing efficiency. If you believe the most foaming-mouthed AI prognosticators, the [9]Dario Amodeis and [10]Sam Altmans of the world, you can expect that this scene will be repeated many times in coming years, across many professions.
[11]
It won't be easy, but technological upheavals have happened before, and the skills you've acquired may find surprising new uses in the AI world. You are not your job. You'll find a new fit.
And remember: it's not your fault. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-layoffs-corporate-jan-2026?utm_source=rss
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/28/amazon_14000_jobs_cut/
[3] https://en.meming.world/images/en/5/5d/James_Franco_First_Time.jpg
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/26/aws_destiny_lumen_corey_quinn/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/20/amazon_ceo_andy_jassy_ai_bubble/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/05/aws_price_increase/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/17/jassy_taps_peter_desantis_to_run_agi/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aXs91hGB8DOhkrG6Qf_qegAAAQo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/29/anthropic_ceo_ai_job_threat/
[10] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/22/openai-sam-altman-congress-ai-jobs
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXs91hGB8DOhkrG6Qf_qegAAAQo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Amazon are absolute bastards - I would never work for them
A friend relocated to Czechia to work for them and 2 weeks into it they reneged on the contract offer... absolute bastards, as I said.
An important lesson in life is that, even if your decision later turns out to have been the wrong one in hindsight, it doesn't mean it was the wrong decision at the time.
If you're looking for work, make sure it does at least 2 of these 3 things:
1) Is the money good?
2) Is it good for your career?
3) Is it a laugh?
If it meets 2 of those, any 2, then go for it. If it doesn't, move on.
Corpo-ration
Corporations are not communities or families, no matter how many all-hands meetings insist otherwise. “Culture” is a retention tactic. The “mission” is a slide deck. The “values” are whatever happens to justify the next reorg. Loyalty is encouraged because it is cheap. Loyalty is never returned because it is expensive.
So workers should treat employment exactly as the company does: as a cost-benefit exercise. Do what is required to remain employed and nothing more. Do not donate effort, availability, or emotional energy. Do not compensate for understaffing, bad planning, or managerial incompetence with unpaid labour. If more output is needed, let it cost the organisation something.
This is not about slacking or playing games. It is about refusing to subsidise the business. You are not there to absorb risk, stress, or instability on the company’s behalf. You are there to exchange labour for money. That’s the entire deal.
Getting emotionally invested is not professionalism, it is exposure. The company spreads risk across headcount, markets, and balance sheets. You concentrate yours in a single employer that can erase your role with a form letter and a talking-points memo. That imbalance is not accidental.
After the layoff comes the real manipulation. You are told it is “not your fault” while everything around you implies it was. Friends ask what you missed. Recruiters talk about “fit.” Commentators reframe it as resilience or personal growth. Structural decisions are personalised. Responsibility flows downward. Accountability evaporates.
AI is just the current alibi. Before that it was offshoring. Before that, “synergy.” Same machine, new language.
Until workers stop mistaking corporations for moral actors and start treating them as extractive systems with good branding, this cycle will keep repeating.
Re: Corpo-ration
Have a pint of whatever you want for this. This is all work ever is. Labour, in exchange for money. It's also something that really ought to be given to every kid leaving school and drilled in to them.
Universal Basic Income
Now