Amazon employees received Project Dawn calendar invite about job cuts

Businessinsider reports some Amazon employees received a calendar invitation on Tuesday that referenced upcoming job cuts and "Project Dawn," an initiative to improve efficiency. The invite, with the subject line "Send Project Dawn email," was written by Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of AWS Solutions, though it appears to have been sent by an assistant.

It was for a calendar event at 5 a.m. Pacific time on Wednesday and was canceled shortly after it was sent; some employees noticed it and shared the information. The accompanying message read, "This is a continuation of the work we've been doing for more than a year to strengthen the company by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy, so that we can move faster for customers." It added, "The notifications to impacted colleagues in our organization who are based in the US, Canada, and Costa Rica have now been completed." Confusion spread on an internal Slack channel with more than 36,000 Amazon employees, where staff questioned whether the message was intended for Aubrey's entire organization or only for those whose roles were being eliminated.