Sleepless Nights And Constant Fear: Amazon Employee’s Story On ‘Layoff Anxiety’ Hits The Internet Hard

Viral Reddit Post: The fear of layoffs has now become the new workplace nightmare and for many Amazon employees, it’s hitting harder than ever. Recently, Amazon announced a major restructuring move that would eliminate around 14,000 corporate positions worldwide. The goal, the company said, is to cut costs while boosting investments in artificial intelligence. But behind those numbers are real people, many of whom are now losing sleep and living in constant fear of seeing that one email no one wants to open.

A Reddit post capturing this fear went viral after a user shared the story of his friend, “One of my closest friends works at Amazon. Exceptionally talented guy… the kind of person who solves technical problems others can’t even phrase properly.” Despite being highly skilled, the friend now lives on edge, fearing each buzz from his phone might signal the end of his career.

The Redditor went on to describe how deep the anxiety runs: “He barely sleeps… maybe 2 or 3 hours a night. He told me people who got laid off earlier received their emails after midnight or early morning, so now he stays awake in constant fear of that notification. Imagine being that scared of an email.”

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What makes it worse, the post added, is self-doubt. “He keeps saying, ‘I'm sure I'll be next. They like people who talk a lot. I just…..work.” The friend’s manager had once mentioned his “communication skills” needed improvement, and that single comment now haunts him. Surrounded by new, confident hires, he feels invisible and convinced his silence could cost him his job.

Watch The Viral Post:

What layoff anxiety does to a blud who’s actually good at his job.
byu/firstprincipal incscareerquestions

“It’s heartbreaking to see someone who’s great at what they do be this mentally wrecked by uncertainty,” the post concluded. “The kind of fear that turns your phone into an anxiety trigger. These corporations don’t talk enough about what layoffs or even the fear of layoffs does to people mentally. It’s brutal. I see the fear of losing a job breaks you long before the layoff does.”

The story, shared by the handle ‘firstprincipal,’ quickly caught the internet’s attention, with thousands relating to the emotional toll of living under constant job insecurity. "I'm pretty good, and work at a non-Faang public tech. I'm in the acceptance phase now. I probably won't get stack ranked (probably) but layoffs, oh yeah, better than a coin flip. As luck would have it, I'm a saver, and my wife earns a great salary too," a user wrote.

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"What's not heartbreaking is Amazon ruining its own company by disrespecting engineers. I fully believe that the AWS outages are related to this," a second user wrote. "He is so right that they like people who talk a lot. Even if nothing to contribute, Amazon prefers people to pitch in and talk. He should find somewhere else to work," added a third user.