Too much fingerprinting on everything: CEO Andy Jassy explains why Amazon is downsizing its middle managers

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is restructuring the company’s hierarchy to reduce layers of middle management and give employees more responsibility. In an interview with Bloomberg, Jassy highlighted concerns about excessive managerial layers slowing down decision-making.

“You add a lot of people and you end up with a lot of middle managers. And those middle managers, all well-intended, want to put their fingerprint on everything,” Jassy said.

Focus on efficiency and ownership

Jassy noted that the current structure has led to unnecessary meetings and limited ownership of decisions. “So you end up with these people being in the pre-meeting, for the pre-meeting, for the decision meeting, and not always making recommendations and owning things the way we want that type of ownership,” he added.

To address this, Amazon is flattening its hierarchy, aiming to give individual employees more control over their projects.

Fewer bosses, more individual contributorsJassy stated that the changes will enhance efficiency and speed within Amazon. “It’s going to allow us, for the people that are doing the work, they’re gonna have more ownership and they’re going to be able to move more quickly,” he said.

Last September, he announced a goal to “increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the end of Q1 2025.”

Return-to-office mandate remains firm

The restructuring comes as Amazon enforces its five-day return-to-office (RTO) policy, despite employee resistance. AWS CEO Matt Garman defended the policy in an all-hands meeting last November, stressing the importance of in-person collaboration for innovation.Jassy’s leadership changes are aimed at streamlining Amazon’s operations while balancing employee concerns over workplace policies.