I was at a company that did the same (at roughly the same time) - this was a terrible mistake. But it's very hard to discuss, because any dev complaining sounds like they want to avoid testing.
Dear manager that I hope reads this:
QAs, at least the ones under discussion, aren't just mindless pressers-of-buttons. They have a skillset and domain knowledge just like (but distinct from) devs. A dev should absolutely test their own code...but they will do so with their domain knowledge which will be by definition more limited than someone for whom such knowledge is a key part of the job. Devs should test so that only problems worthy of the QA skillset make it to the QAs.
Asking devs to do QA work is asking them to build skills that are not their strength, and that will come at the cost of their strengths. It is asking them to build skills they probably don't enjoy, and that will come at the cost of their job satisfaction. Having devs do QA work is as bad as devs that test nothing and leave it all for the QAs - it's an inefficient and ineffective use of resources and time.
There is nothing wrong with encouraging Devs to deliver higher quality code to the QA/Test engs. There IS something wrong with thinking higher quality code from devs mean you don't need a QA/Test Eng.