After 8 years at Amazon, laid off employee’s viral post warns against ‘start-up style risks’ in corporate roles

A former Amazon employee’s detailed post on Reddit has gone viral for its candid account of the company’s demanding work culture and shifting priorities amid ongoing layoffs. The individual, who claimed to have worked at Amazon for more than eight years, said they were laid off in the previous restructuring round despite consistently strong performance.

According to the post, the employee began in a stable role with steady growth, earning top performance ratings and contributing to internal innovation projects. Things changed when they were offered a leadership role in a new, high-stakes business initiative backed by significant investment. What seemed like a breakthrough opportunity soon turned into an unsustainable workload — stretching to 12–15-hour days, including weekends — as the team raced to deliver what was described as a “revolutionary product.”

The project, however, ran into technical and strategic challenges. “Everyone at the ground level could see the ground shaking. Leadership didn’t,” the user wrote, reflecting growing internal misalignment. After nearly three years of long hours and limited progress, the initiative was shelved, and the employee was among those laid off.

The post suggests that Amazon’s culture continues to reward extreme ownership and “start-up style” execution without offering proportional upside. “When things were going well, there was no upside. But when things failed, the downside was a layoff,” the user noted, adding, “If you want to take a start-up level risk, do it for your own startup — not Amazon.”

The account has resonated with many in the tech industry as major firms, including Amazon, Microsoft and Google, continue restructuring amid efficiency drives and growing adoption of AI-led automation. For employees, the story underscores a recurring dilemma in Big Tech — rising expectations and accountability, but fewer safety nets and diminishing long-term incentives.

A user commented, “The joke is on you if you thought anything else would have happened. Amazon has used and thrown out people like it was chips.”

“I can totally relate to this. We lionize work to the point where it makes us feel needed, valuable. We think we’re providing for our families, chasing more material things while the value of our dollar diminishes, our houses get more expensive. And our relationships atrophy, we become disconnected to what actually matters to us most,” another user wrote.

“This is true across the tech industry. This frontload vesting shit applies this to everyone,” the third user expressed.