A London-based artificial intelligence researcher who accepted a role as an applied scientist with Amazon in May 2022 says he went through an eight-month U.S. visa process and relocated to Seattle only to have the offer withdrawn before he could start the job he was hired to do.
The situation illustrates how rapidly Amazon, along with others in the industry, shifted from aggressively recruiting skilled workers to shedding jobs. As described by the researcher, the sudden turn of events also shows how arbitrary, shortsighted, and impersonal many standard processes associated with corporate cutbacks can seem to people impacted by them.
Diego Granziol, who graduated from Oxford University in 2020 with his doctorate in machine learning and engineering, is suing Amazon on claims of breach of contract, unpaid wages, and promissory estoppel — seeking unspecified financial damages for the time and resources he spent based on Amazon’s promise to employ him.
Amazon withdrew the offer just as it started making layoffs and other cutbacks.
In addition to the time and resources that he put into obtaining a specialized visa and moving to America, and the other job opportunities that he didn’t pursue in the meantime, Granziol says he was disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to prove himself inside the tech giant.
“I was absolutely stoked about coming to Seattle, starting my new life, and contributing my deep-learning knowledge to Amazon,” Granziol said, speaking with GeekWire in a recent video call from London.
‘Very small number’ of offers rescinded
Amazon, which has announced a total of 27,000 layoffs in its corporate and tech workforce, declined to comment on the lawsuit, and the company has not yet filed a response to the suit in court. However, the company acknowledged that there were some situations in which it withdrew offers as a result of its cutbacks.
“[A]s we conducted our recent annual operating plan review, and in light of the challenging economic conditions, we made the difficult decision to eliminate some roles in particular businesses for which we’d extended offers but the candidates had not yet joined the company,” said Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser. “This decision impacted a very small number of roles, and we regret that we were not able to welcome these individuals to the Amazon team.”
After getting the Amazon offer, Granziol went through an extensive process to receive an O-1 visa, for people who show “extraordinary ability” in sciences, the arts, business, or other areas.
“Dr. Granziol applied for thirty jobs in the United States before he threw in the towel and headed home on January 13, 2023,” reads the complaint, filed on April 7 in King County Superior Court by Seattle-based lawyer Jeffrey Wheat.
Granziol’s situation differs in some ways from those who were already working in the U.S. tech industry on H-1B temporary work visas when they were laid off in recent months. However, like many others, he also faced a deadline to find new employment in a job market suddenly flooded with skilled engineers and other laid-off workers with technical skills.
Under the terms of their visas, these laid-off tech workers typically face a 60-day deadline to find new work before they are required to leave the country.
‘Devastating effect’ on tech visa holders
Layoffs across the tech industry have impacted thousands of tech workers and their families who have been living in the U.S. under visas, said Tahmina Watson, a Seattle-based immigration attorney and author whose clients include tech workers and entrepreneurs.
“I think it’s had a devastating effect on individuals, regardless of the type of visa they’re on,” Watson said of the recent wave of tech layoffs. “What I’ve seen is, the initial week is very debilitating for people. … And when they can crawl out of that feeling, then they’re thinking, ‘What do I do next?’ And that’s when the world feels a little dark.”
A Swiss citizen, Granziol is an accomplished guitarist, power lifter, and published AI researcher whose experience prior to accepting the offer from Amazon included a stint as an AI researcher with Chinese tech company Huawei in London.
He had also interned previously with Amazon in Berlin. He described that internship as a positive experience that made him excited about the prospect of working for the e-commerce giant in its hometown.
“If I thought some drop in the stock market price was going to rescind the offer, I’m not even sure I would have applied … “
Diego Granziol
So when the Amazon Prime team later reached out and recruited him “quite aggressively” after his graduation from Oxford, he welcomed the opportunity and passed up other potential jobs to work for Amazon in Seattle.
He said he checked in with Amazon in October, before relocating from London to Seattle, and was reassured that his position was secure despite the turmoil and cutbacks that were emerging in the industry.
For many months after accepting the offer, he was in direct contact with leaders of what was expected to be his future Amazon team. So he was blindsided, after moving to Seattle, when he received a call from someone he didn’t know, telling him the offer was being rescinded. At first, he thought it was a prank.
“If I thought some drop in the stock market price was going to rescind the offer, I’m not even sure I would have applied, let alone gone through a several-month process,” he said. “My understanding is that an offer is an offer. And once you’ve signed that, it’s binding, and you at least have the opportunity, if you meet the conditions, to have a few months to prove yourself … especially at Amazon.”
Back in London, Granziol is now working on his own startup, with a new outlook.
“There really was this sense that tech, especially American tech, was really focused on long-term growth and investment in a way that, let’s say, investment banks and hedge funds are considered not to,” he said. “What happened to me, combined with what I read and see, has given me the impression that might have changed.”
