IT professional sells home and car to join Amazon in Europe, fired

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An IT professional from Kenya sold his home and his car to join Amazon in Europe got fired by the company just four days before he was set to move there.

Earlier this month, Amazon announced to lay off 18,000 employees globally, which were said to start from January 18.

Tom Mboya Opiyo was among the 18,000 people impacted by Amazon’s mass layoffs.

Impacted by the layoff, Opiyo, took to LinkedIn, where he shared his ordeal.

“Well, last week I shared about my impending exciting move abroad. It was a relocation role to Europe with a leading global company. Sadly, it has fallen through due to business changes as part of the organisation’s ‘annual operating review’ that impacted the role and many others. The organisation is shedding jobs globally and the information is available online,” Opiyo wrote in his LinkedIn Post.

“We were to travel this weekend so that I start work on Monday, 16th Jan and the call came 4 days to that date,” he added.

Opiyo further said that his family is truly devastated after planning for the move for 6 months and believes that God will have a better plan for them.

He also mentioned that he and his will also go for counselling.

Opiyo concluded his post by saying, “For me, I didn’t expect to be in this kind of situation at this stage in my career but that’s what life is about. Some have to experience certain situations so as to be an example to others. Keep us in prayers. God is good all the time”.

The year 2023 has begun on a bad note for tech workers globally, and 91 companies have laid off more than 24,000 tech employees in the first 15 days this month, signalling worse days ahead.