Amazon's corporate employees based out of the New York City area were reportedly asked to volunteer to assist with grocery deliveries at the company's warehouses during its four-day Prime Day event.

According to The Guardian, an internal Slack message went out to thousands of New York City-based engineers, marketers and other office workers on July 7, requesting that they "help us out with Prime Day to deliver to customers on our biggest days yet." Volunteers were asked to donate their time to work two-hour shifts between July 8 and July 11 at Amazon's Red Hook warehouse in Brooklyn, where they would pick groceries, prepare carts and bags for delivery, pack boxes on receiving carts, and "boost morale with distribution of snacks." Workers were also told that they'd be allowed use conference rooms to take meetings and calls related to their everyday roles as needed.

In a statement to The Guardian, Amazon spokesperson Griffin Buch said that this is not the first time corporate employees have been asked to volunteer at warehouses, and that it offers a chance for them to "get closer to customers." Buch also noted that the request was "entirely optional."

Amazon is known to hire thousands of temporary warehouse workers for major sales periods, including Prime Day and the holiday shopping season. This year also marks the first time that the company has extended its two-day Prime Day discount event to span four days. 

Amazon made deep cuts to its grocery delivery business in 2023, when it closed several of its brick-and-mortar Amazon Fresh locations and laid off hundreds of employees. In June, CEO Andy Jassy revealed plans to reduce the company's corporate workforce as it invests more in generative AI and AI-powered software agents.