Amazon Offers 'Voluntary Severance' to Employees Who Resign Amid Ongoing Layoffs (2024)

Nikki Main

November 17, 2022 at 4:30 PM·2 min read

Amazon sent a letter to some of its employees this week offering a buyout program if they voluntarily resigned. The proposal is a “voluntary severance” that would provide employees with three months’ pay if they selected to leave the company amidst mass layoffs at the company.

The company said employees will receive the three months’ pay as a “lump sum” plus one week’s salary for every six months of tenure they worked at the company, according to internal company documents obtained by CNBC.

If the employee agrees to take voluntary severance, they will also receive health insurance benefits through the end of December and a weekly stipend over 12 weeks. It’s being reported they’ll have until November 29 to make a decision but will be able to withdraw their decision to resign by December 5.

Amazon also reportedly says in the documents they will inform employees once their resignation is accepted and their employment with the company will end on December 23.

In a letter to employees on Wednesday, Amazon Senior Vice President of Devices and Services David Limp told employees they could expect layoffs in their devices and services units. He referenced a town hall meeting in July where he said he talked about the state of the economy and the “unusual and uncertain macroeconomic environment.”

He told employees that they had made the difficult decision to “consolidate some teams and programs,” adding, “One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required. It pains me to have to deliver this news as we know we will lose talented Amazonians from the Devices & Services org as a result.”

The news comes as Amazon becomes one of the latest tech giants to cut jobs. The New York Times first reported the company aims to cut 10,000 jobs across the company. Elon Musk laid off half of Twitter’s staff of 7,500 employees earlier this month while Facebook’s parent company Meta laid off roughly 11,000 employees. Since the beginning of the year, an estimated 128,865 people have been laid off across 814 tech companies, according to layoffs.fyi - a site that tracks job cuts across the tech industry. The number of individuals laid off per month in the tech industry has drastically increased from 3,625 in February of this year to 37,866 in November alone.

Limp told employees that they will receive support from the company by being relocated to another team, but he said, “In cases where employees cannot find a new role within the company, we will support the transition with a package that includes a separation payment, transitional benefits, and external job placement support.”

He continued, “We know people across the organization may be impacted differently by this news and will lead with compassion for all team members.”