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Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After Email Note (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader writes: An Amazon employee was injured when he leaped off a building at the company's Seattle headquarters in what police characterized as a suicide attempt. The man, who wasn't identified by authorities, sent an e-mail visible to hundreds of co-workers, including Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, before the incident occurred, according to a report on Bloomberg. The man survived the fall from Amazon's 12-story Apollo building at about 8:45 a.m. local time Monday and was taken to a Seattle hospital, police said. The man had recently put in a request to transfer to a different department, but was placed on an employee improvement plan, a step that can lead to termination if performance isn't improved, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing company personnel matters. More than 20,000 people work in multiple buildings at Amazon's headquarters.
From the various anecdotes I've heard about Amazon, I sure as hell wouldn't want to work there.
Amazon needs to innovate suicide-prevention nets just like Tim Cook did.
Come to think of it, suicided-prevention nets are about the only thing that Tim Cook can credibly claim he innovated...
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
>Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After Email Note
Was the note telling him he would have to pick up his package from the post office?
This is clearly a deranged individual, and not a reflection on modern corporate management styles. USA! USA! USA!
Ok I get the depression that comes with having a shitty job. I really do, BUT killing ones self is not the solution. Finding another job is. At another company. Away from the shit. But sounds like Amazon does some shady shit to avoid paying unemployment based on the key point. "employee improvement program" used as a precursor to being fired. Some shady shit going on there.
employee improvement plan, a step that can lead to termination if performance isn't improved
Whoever invented "employee improvement plan" needs to die.
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This seems to be very common at Amazon. Going by the FACE site, it shows a clear pattern of abuse, and I'm not surprised that this hasn't happened before.
Granted the FACE site is posted to those who are usually pissed at Amazon, but with so many postings and so often it shows that there is a clear pattern of employee abuse.
Software Engineer & Writer of Military Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog: petermwright.com Twitter: WrightPeterM
Killing yourself just because of a shitty job (that you could just quit from) strongly suggests his mental process/values are pretty fucked up, so maybe he actually also isn't a good employee.
Yay, euphemism. Politically correct, and deadly cold.
I worked at a company with a 15th floor balcony. They'd chain the doors shut during layoffs.
was placed on an employee improvement plan, a step that can lead to termination if performance isn't improved,
Stepping off a 12 story building seems like kind of a harsh "improvement plan".
So what? Jeff Bezos is evil, indeed, but he has power. With power he can do anything. We know Amazon employees are shit and are treated as such. The managers there behave like mad dogs and mad wolfs. So what? Wall street still likes Amazon and at the end of the day it is Jeff Bezos who still is the successful and powerful and symbol of American Dream. Won't be surprised if there are more lives lost, either suicide or otherwise, at Amazon headquarters.
REPLY ALL nearly KILLS man
?!!!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Alexa made him do it.
So... where's the e-mail that he sent? Clearly in such moment, near death and everything, he had something important to say?
If anyone can read Chinese I think there's more information here, including the manager's name.
http://www.1point3acres.com/bbs/thread-213784-1-1.html
I was a lead video game tester when my supervisor almost got fired for ignoring my documented warnings that the project I was managing was a slow moving train wreck. That incident was serious enough to get him promoted out of the department. My new supervisor thought I deliberately tried to get my old supervisor fired and told me to not document any his actions for my next project. Since this supervisor had a sleazy reputation of always getting his numbers (including making them up), I told him to bugger off. Every time I documented something he did that adversely affected my project, he wrote me up for insubordination. After he gave me "his way or the highway" speech, I turned in my resignation and got a help desk job that paid more money for a 40-hour work week. (As a lead tester, I worked 60 hours a week for 28 days straight on my last project.) I was the third of a dozen senior testers who left the department before the company went into bankruptcy.
burn burn burn
Workplace suicides are on the rise — why is one at Amazon considered particularly newsworthy? Are not Bloomberg and Slashdot encouraging some poor slob to do it, by promising them a bit of post-mortem glory, however fleeting?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Cry me a fucking river. He is lucky to have a job in the first place. If he can't do his job, well, he can practice saying "Would you like fries with that?". They probaly need to do what Foxconn does and install anti-suicide nets at Amazon
Is an "employee improvement plan" literally just a euphemism for the fast track to termination everywhere, or are there places where it's taken seriously and efforts are made to actually improve an employee's performance?
It sure seems like EIPs only really exist as a way to get rid of an employee -- set unreachable goals, make them pariahs who other employees would keep at arm's length, flag them for increased scrutiny of metrics generally ignored for other employees, basically create the cover for termination with cause and denial of any unemployment benefits.
But are there companies that actually use them to help right a floundering employee and make them successful? Acknowledge that company process is imperfect, managers aren't either, the employee in question is skilled but maybe not an ideal fit for the team they're placed in? Any companies actually take seriously the idea they have a fair amount invested in someone they've already hired and that it may make sense to actually do something to make the employee work out vs. starting over?
As a contractor, I know I've walked into places where my skills were ideal for the job but where all manner of circumstances (people, management, resources) left my performance substandard, despite doing the same thing well just previously elsewhere and then moving on to do the same thing well at a new location. Objectively I should have done equally well at companies A, B & C but for reasons that seem external to me, B works less well.
I once worked for a Fortune 50 company and developed mental health issues.
I was seeing a psychiatrist but didn't tell my employer.
My work was suffering and I was about to be put on an "improvement plan."
I told my boss I was seeing a shrink.
She sent me to HR and I was put on medical leave.
I eventually returned from the leave.
I didn't attempt suicide.
One of my former co-workers from the porno business got a job at Amazon. She quit within a week and told me "I'd rather go back to the porno shop, at least there they bother to give you lube for when you get fucked."
That alone tells me all I need to know about Amazon, and I'll never shop there. If one of my co-workers from a very tough industry couldn't hack something supposedly so simple and benign as Amazon warehouse work when she had no problems sorting and packing and selling boxes of DVDs and lube and sex toys, there's something seriously fucking wrong with Amazon's management and policies and procedures.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
... but was placed on an employee improvement plan, a step that can lead to termination if performance isn't improved, ...
Won't look good on his performance report. "Employee fails to complete tasks in a timely fashion."
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I don't know what you imagine you get out of being callous - other than making yourself look slightly less than human. Workplace bullying really ought to be something that everybody worried about; nobody is immune to the very serious, mental health problems that this can cause, and trying to appear "tough" only makes you all the more vulnerable.
This is what the Republican Trump-supporter Bezos wants for us. Like all his Republican brethren, he wants to get everybody a good-paying job and take away all of the handouts so that we jump off buildings and kill ourselves. They truly hate us. This is the way of the Republican kind. Like Bezos.
The jump wasn't from the 12th floor, which is why he survived. He only fell about 20 feet. http://www.seattlepi.com/local...
"only one way out"
From the various anecdotes I've heard about Amazon, I sure as hell wouldn't want to work there.
You could say that about any number of companies. Cultural fit is an important consideration at any job. Google is a great place to work for some but it would be a terrible place for me personally. We have people at my company who do jobs that I'm perfectly capable of doing but would absolutely loathe doing. Sometimes one part of a business can be a good fit and another branch of the same company can be a terrible fit.
Is Amazon a great or terrible place to work? I think that depends on your personal perspective. Probably doesn't fit most of us well but obviously some people think it is fine.
Everyone knows they can't do stairs.
http://i.imgur.com/mKmJyrn.png
If you get 20,000 people together for ANY reason, you are going to get at least a few who are not mentally well. The US has 12.1 suicides per 100,000 people annually. That means that in a random group of 20,000 people in the USA you would expect 2-3 of them to try to (successfully) commit suicide in a given year and presumable some number more to attempt it. One guy in a company that large does not justify drawing any deeper conclusions than he was one of those 2-3 people.
4. Help management identify why they are at fault.
5. Help co-workers and peers identify why they are at fault.
6. Help the "team" (yes - sarcasm quotes) identify why they are at fault.
I could go on all day. Supposed employee poor performance is so often caused by factors outside the employees control that to not even consider them means you are incompetent or malicious. Or like most managers I knew, both.
EDITOR:Summary should be updated to correct misleading impression that the guy lept off and fell 12 stories. The actual truth of the matter is that he leaped off a 4 story section connected to a 12 story building, and even then he didn't reach the ground, but instead landed on a balcony about 20 feet below.
You don't want make judgments bases on single cases without comparing rates at Amazon against rates at other companies.
Of course, in the not-too-distant future, we will All be working at Amazon, so comparisons of that type may be hard to make.
Every day 117 people commit suicide. (avg)
Where did the other 116 people work?
Take this job and and be happy or take a flying leap.
Couldn't even do THAT right...
He only fell 20 feet. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Amazon-worker-leaps-from-building-at-Seattle-10640986.php
A Seattle Fire Department spokesperson confirmed that a man jumped from a rooftop at an Amazon building at Ninth Avenue North and Thomas Street. The rooftop was about four stories up -- the pedestal section of the 12-story high-rise -- but the man fell only about 20 feet to a balcony below, Lt. Harold Webb, with Seattle Fire, said. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
I doubt he had any injuries and was simply taken to the hospital for psychiatric observation.
If you only listen to people who quit from working at company, of course you're going to hear it's a terrible place to work. If they didn't think so, they likely would still be working there.
To get a balanced view of what working at the company is really like, you need to sample (hear testimonials from) both people who quit working there, and people who are still working there. Maybe Amazon is evil incarnate. Or maybe the things they did are perfectly normal, it just tickled one of her pet peeves that wouldn't have bothered 98% of the population.
If the people still working there say it's a shit place to work, then you've got something worth reporting.
His Employee Improvement Plan cited "propensity to jump off medium-tall buildings".
he didn't die! As a business owner I know how evil employees can be. Sometimes I just wish I was allowed to shoot them in front o their families! His death would have improved Amazon's stock! Firings lead to better stock! What does that tll you? That employees are cockroaches only looking to steal from hard working business men!
Good thing I am running a business from a country where employees rights are the same as those of dung! Otherwise we would never make a profit. Employees always whine and want raises. Fucking animals! They should be grateful I let them to live and don't work the to death as I should!
From my experience, you have to put someone on a performance improvement plan before they can be fired.
You have to have a paper trail showing what steps were taken to try to improve performance.
If they can't improve after X amount of time, then you have the green light to fire them.
All of this is because of legal reasons, so that you have ammunition if they decide to sue the company.
As with most things that seems stupid, lawyers (or the fear of them) are usually to blame.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
This is very sad, I feel badly for this guy.
On a related note, a good friend of mine worked as a programmer in their Seattle office. He quit, telling me they treat people like sh*t and it wasn't worth it. That was a few years ago, so I believe this person above may have been suffering a culture there that Amazon has yet to deal with.
A similar thing happened when I worked at Cisco about 10 years ago. A guy had a mental breakdown, forced his way into the CEO's office and shouted a bit until security detained him and handed him over to the police.
The man had recently put in a request to transfer to a different department, but was placed on an employee improvement plan, a step that can lead to termination if performance isn't improved
This reminds me of similar stories reported at Amazon Japan: http://toyokeizai.net/articles...
With these and that old google++ rant about Amazon/Bezos by Steve Yegge, it is hard to not to draw generalizations about Amazon's work culture. I know people that work there (just acquaintances), and they seem to like it. But shit, all of these combined do not paint a nice picture.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I work and worked in places where they had EIPs and despite quite many proceeding through such "plan" not a single employee came out with any improvement aside from a three month grace period for looking for a new job. The managers really do not have a plan because they already decided to plan differently. Amazon is surely not the only place that consider employees "human capital" that is freely replaceable.
Unemployed people are more likely to commit suicide, for instance. And how many people choose to do it at work in an explicit attempt to make a statement against their employers?
Those people are accounted for in the actuarial tables. Unless there was something truly exceptional about this specific circumstance that you can point to (does not seem to be the case here) or if you have data indicating that there is a statistically higher than expected suicide rate among Amazon workers then it doesn't say anything about working conditions at Amazon. I'm not saying it isn't a tragedy (it very much is) but there is no evidence that this was an event outside the expected rate of normal either.
The article seems to imply that Amazon is somehow at fault here but there is no evidence presented to support that. It's a single data point with no evidence presented to explain why we should believe it was something other than what we should expect looking at actuarial tables.
Except that Amazon does not employ people at random, especially at their HQ.
Unless you have evidence that there is a higher than average suicide rate among Amazon workers then that is a meaningless statement. A single data point does not make a trend nor does it say anything useful about working conditions at Amazon, good or bad. Unless you can point to something that makes this truly an exceptional case then statistically speaking it is just the expected outcome among a large population.
Similar protocol recently introduced where I work. Done under the auspices of Employee Health and Well being. However like management terms re-organization and transformation being largely just another way to say layoffs it isn't really want it purports to be. Basically sets attendance standards, to which if not met involves escalation and eventual grounds for termination. Two of the hallmarks that don't make a lot of sense is that firstly the values set out are less than those that are entitled within contract which is pretty sketchy. Secondly unlike the title it basically encourages/influences/pressures employees to come to work sick or potentially face censure. Supposedly one of the "helpful" questions they ask should you get pulled before management is "What can we do to help your attendance", by which I would think the obvious answer would be to stop forcing/promoting sick people to go to work getting more people sick in an endless spiral of sickness, reprisals, and low moral. Anyway I'm sure someone in HR management thought this was a fantastic idea... All it really does is give management more flexibility in who they can fire because it will be pretty hard for anyone not to fall into the program. The reason is unimportant, if you get hit by a car, and clearly you have a broken leg, and you miss more than X days, it doesn't matter, you're in the program. I expect this will last until some overzealous manager decides to use it to get rid of someone they don't like without thinking too much, where regardless of the new policy, if it is in breach of actual contract or employee law and gets sued into oblivion for wrongful dismissal. However before that happens it is going to cause a lot of harm in additional employee stress, low moral, etc... I get that a small number of employees will always try to take advantage of a system, however this pretty much targets everyone and it is pretty transparent that it exists as nothing more than a management tool to get rid of people they just don't like. Part of the reason I find it most insulting is that it is so thinly veiled, and for the most part the employees are highly educated, does management think that everyone doesn't easily see though all this, or is it they simply don't care. For extra douchebaggery it seems they also implemented it retroactively, meaning your attendance levels prior to the programs existence or your knowledge of said program count towards your inclusion, though some I believe are pushing back on that point. As for performance. I think it will have opposite to intended result. Just prior to hearing about all this I can recall thinking I need to do more to be as effective as possible, now I could care less. So I'm sure some HR boffin can point to some attendance statistics and sickly smile and say "see it's working, look how how effective we are, that's a 10% improvement", where in reality you just have more employee attendance not productivity.
When the Chinese factory workers were being prevented from doing this by NETS AROUND THE BUILDINGS, it was world-wide news. When a white collar person does same in the US, the only place I see it is here on slashdot. Why?
... that could convince me to compromise my life enough to work at Amazon. Worst company I know to work at. They take exploitation to new levels.