Amazon subsidiary Zappos, an online shoe and clothing seller, cuts off about 20% of its workforce in January.
This is according to those who know Zappos, and the company’s memo accessed by The Wall Street Journal.
The company’s jobs cut of over 300 staff is part of Amazon’s broader lay off plan of 18000 workers.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the lay off affects about 5% of its corporate ranks.
The jobs cut at Zappos included customer representative which is a position valued by the former chief executive office, Mr. Hsieh who died in 2020 at the age of 46.
As a result, Zappos has one of its 10 core values to be “Deliver WOW through service.” Mr. Hsieh often drove this by answering customer’s calls himself during busy periods.
The current CEO of Zappos, Scott Schaefer, referred to the job cut as “extremely difficult news” in an email sent to employees in January.
The email reads, “As we enter 2023, we are still facing an uncertain economy which requires us to continue to take a hard look at our business, and respond in a way that ensures we are set up for long term success.”
The spokeswoman of the company, Laura Davis, said the cuts were included in Zappos’s business planning.
However, speaking about customer service division, she added that the layoffs were “ultimately made to ensure Zappos is set up to continue to provide an exceptional customer experience, long-term.”
