On 1 September 2023, Justin Garrison’s senior role at Amazon Web Services (AWS) was eliminated. Despite still receiving paychecks, he has been in limbo for four months, with managers advising him to find a new role internally or elsewhere. Garrison, a senior developer advocate at AWS for almost four years, sees this as part of a worrying trend at Amazon following layoffs and return-to-office plans announced earlier in the year.
Instead of resorting to mass firings that could unsettle shareholders or incur costly severance packages, Amazon is allegedly making employees’ lives difficult through tactics such as enforcing return-to-office (RTO) policies or placing them in lower-paying or more junior positions. This strategy is often referred to as ‘quiet firing’. It involves the gradual removal of perks and benefits or neglecting certain employees to the extent that they leave.
In a recent blog post, Amazon employee, Garrison, coined the term ‘silent sacking’ to describe this practice. He highlighted a lack of clarity about the future of his role since the summer, despite earlier assurances that RTO plans announced by Andy Jassy, CEO, Amazon, in February wouldn’t affect his team.
Garrison, who started his remote job in April 2020, expressed frustration with the changing circumstances and lack of transparency from upper management in recent months.
He shared his experience with a company policy called ‘return-to-teams’, where employees had to work from an office near their team.
Choosing Vancouver, he was told no work visa sponsorship was likely, making it an unavailable option.
Shortly after, his team was eliminated, and despite a one-year ‘remote exception’, Garrison found himself with about a month and a half of work at AWS. When he asked for a severance package, initially mentioned as an option, he was told to submit a proposal.
For the next two and a half months, Garrison followed up on his severance request but received no updates.
