The Slow Collapse of Amazon's Drone Delivery Dream

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Well over 100 employees at Amazon Prime Air have lost their jobs and dozens of other roles are moving to other projects abroad as the company shutters part of its operation in the UK, WIRED understands. Insiders claim the future of the UK operation, which launched in 2016 to help pioneer Amazon's global drone delivery efforts, is now uncertain. Those working on the UK team in the last few years, who spoke on condition of anonymity, describe a project that was "collapsing inwards," "dysfunctional" and resembled "organized chaos," run by managers that were "detached from reality" in the years building up to the mass redundancies. They told WIRED about increasing problems within Prime Air in recent years, including managers being appointed who knew so little about the project they couldn't answer basic work questions, an employee drinking beer at their desk in the morning and some staff being forced to train their replacements in Costa Rica. Amazon says it still has staff working for Prime Air in the UK, but has refused to confirm headcount. [...] An Amazon spokesperson says it will still have a Prime Air presence in the UK after the cuts, but refuses to disclose what type of work will take place. The spokesperson also refused to confirm, citing security reasons, if any of the test flights that once filled promotional videos will still take place in the UK. The spokesperson adds that the company has found positions in other parts of its business for some affected employees and that it will keep growing its presence in the region. The spokesperson did not confirm how many employees were offered other jobs internally.

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