Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After Being Put on "Improvement Plan"-E-Mailed suicide Note

Amazon employee jumped off their 12 story building this morning becasue he was transferred to a different dept. and put on an employee improvement plan, a plan that can lead to termination. He sent out a letter that indicated he may harm himself and he was critical of Amazon handling of his case.

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.

www.bloomberg.com...

Amazon has tried to soften it crappy image as a really cut throat and back stabbing place to work. I bet they hope this doesn't damage their new softer Amazon image.

The online retailer has taken steps to soften its image as a difficult employer since a New York Times story last year portrayed the company as a bruising workplace where employees were encouraged to take advantage of one another to get ahead. Amazon disputed the characterization of the company.

a reply to: seasonal

I read that there's a net above the sidewalk at APPLE products assembly plant in China, because of workers jumping out the windows due to hours and stress. (It's not to save the jumpers, but to prevent pedestrians from being killed)

a reply to: carewemust
That's true isn't it, well I hope this guy, who LIVED!!??, doesn't mess up any Black Friday all month sales.

No healthy sane person jumps off a building at the possibility of losing a job.
I appreciate Amazon is a big evil conglomerate but instead of blaming them maybe we should look at this mans mental health and what else in his life led him to thinking this was the answer.

originally posted by: IkNOwSTuff
No healthy sane person jumps off a building at the possibility of losing a job.
I appreciate Amazon is a big evil conglomerate but instead of blaming them maybe we should look at this mans mental health and what else in his life led him to thinking this was the answer.

Well, to be fair, no normal person jumps off a 12 story building and survives.

a reply to: seasonal

Was gonna say how did he survive that far of a fall,

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.

SeattlePI

The office is in an area where unemployment is higher than the state level where %s have dropped. The basic assumption is that many move here for those jobs. When there's job issues they are faced with homelessness. Coupled with Amazon's sketchy employee care record; If the man already had a pre existing mental condition, that would, of course, exacerbate it.

originally posted by: IkNOwSTuff
No healthy sane person jumps off a building at the possibility of losing a job.
I appreciate Amazon is a big evil conglomerate but instead of blaming them maybe we should look at this mans mental health and what else in his life led him to thinking this was the answer.

This isn't it at all. When a person has their life pulled away from them or a job is threatened, they can begin to feel all kinds of worst case thoughts, and a perfectly sane and happy person can suddenly discover they are no longer happy or sane. People are usually perfectly sane UNTIL they are harmed greatly in their life and can't see that their future can also be righted again if they have more patience and stick it out.

By the way, how the heck does a person survive a 12 story fall?

originally posted by: NoCorruptionAllowed

originally posted by: IkNOwSTuff
No healthy sane person jumps off a building at the possibility of losing a job.
I appreciate Amazon is a big evil conglomerate but instead of blaming them maybe we should look at this mans mental health and what else in his life led him to thinking this was the answer.

This isn't it at all. When a person has their life pulled away from them or a job is threatened, they can begin to feel all kinds of worst case thoughts, and a perfectly sane and happy person can suddenly discover they are no longer happy or sane. People are usually perfectly sane UNTIL they are harmed greatly in their life and can't see that their future can also be righted again if they have more patience and stick it out.

By the way, how the heck does a person survive a 12 story fall?

I almost agree, anyone contemplating suicide over a job is not healthy. Perhaps they always seemed OK but then the stress triggered something subconcious or set off some pre existing chemical imbalance.

I hate big business as much if not more than the average Joe but in this case I think the company he worked for is irrelevant.

If anything the company seems like it was giving a non performing employee a chance to improve or alternately look for other employment.

Based on his experience maybe he should look into a job as a stunt man or crash test dummy since hes obviously indestructable

I've heard Amazon isn't for the faint.

Sounds like the guy should have quit and found a new job.

originally posted by: seasonal

employees were encouraged to take advantage of one another to get ahead.

I'm sorry but this is probably true for just about any line of work. Having said that, it's very sad when people feel so threatened in the workplace that they resort to self-harm. At the moment I am currently married to my work so I kind of understand how an employee could take something like this very personal. Sometimes our work is all we have to get out of bed.

(off-topic: Seasonal, thanks for your production of threads lately. You usually bring awesome topics to the site worthy of much discussion and interest. High-five for being an awesome contributor around here! )

originally posted by: NoCorruptionAllowed

originally posted by: IkNOwSTuff
No healthy sane person jumps off a building at the possibility of losing a job.
I appreciate Amazon is a big evil conglomerate but instead of blaming them maybe we should look at this mans mental health and what else in his life led him to thinking this was the answer.

This isn't it at all. When a person has their life pulled away from them or a job is threatened, they can begin to feel all kinds of worst case thoughts, and a perfectly sane and happy person can suddenly discover they are no longer happy or sane. People are usually perfectly sane UNTIL they are harmed greatly in their life and can't see that their future can also be righted again if they have more patience and stick it out.

By the way, how the heck does a person survive a 12 story fall?

He didn't. Source material says he fell twenty feet...the title is sensationalized, but if you read it, he didn't actually fall very far. If he had really fallen twelve stories, they'd have been scraping him off the pavement with a spatula.

Stress and fear in the workplace has grown massively the last 10 or so years, and I have seen some really strong people broken with how senior management handle them. The Police force in the UK comes to mind, zero support even when you do the job the correct way. Retail jobs are far worse due to no union and a over subscribed number of low skilled workers looking for employment.

In many situations if a person is just making ends meet and then has stress put on them suicide "is" a option in their mind. The company I work for has had a number of well known cases of people being told they are going to face the chance of a job loss to then take their own life, one situation that comes to mind is a gentlemen who jumped off the main HR building here in the UK as he could not face telling his wife he had lost his job.

To further the issues the way people are vetted now for jobs if you have been terminated regardless if you have a case for unfair dismissal the chances of getting re employed are very slim. Everything that you do and or have done is recorded and these vetting companies have access to every aspect of your life. There is no second chance anymore and the days of dropping off a CV then a interview and a handshake are long gone. And you can face prison if you have falsified "anything" on a CV even a minor grade from school as was the norm back in the day..

I foresee there being a suicide epidemic in people of a working age that will state work pressure and employment issues for their actions in the coming years and It is a trend that may well be underway here in the UK right now.

Employers know they have you by the balls, they take liberties knowing that there is very little a person can do as if they get dismissed their future career plans are toast..


RA

If this was me I wouldnt be jumping out of the window and I would be throwing the amazon bosses out the window instead.

It is too far fetched to think that in a couple years time when amazon is the ownly retailer after killing off all small buisnesses will all find ourselves working at amazon.... although not employed by amazon but getting benifits and forced to work their or else our benifits will be cut (this already happens in the UK and germany amazon works with the government to exploit the unemployed).

Just boycott this evil company and do the whole world a favour.

originally posted by: slider1982
Stress and fear in the workplace has grown massively the last 10 or so years

Perhaps in correlation with the new generation of very coddled, very strange, very entitled group of young special snowflakes that seem to possess a very poor level of "coping" skills, seem to pout and throw tantrums when they don't get their way and Don't seem to have the best ability to critically think through adversity or challenge?

a reply to: Ranger351
When the stock market crashed in 1929 people supposedly jumped out of buildings, I don't think this is a new trend.

As another poster pointed out China put up nets at Foxconn to keep jumpers from killing pedestrians below.

I wonder if the level of job dissatisfaction are similar?

a reply to: seasonal

The modern work place sucks.

Where I live the employers all treat everyone so badly for so long no one wants to work at these places anymore now they can't find anybody who will work there and the situation is changing.

Most of the factories are running mandatory overtime 60-70 hours a week and still can't produce enough because not even illegal immigrants want to work under the conditions in the current work place.

People are choosing to live with their parents/ friends/ family on food stamps rather than work in a high stress backstabbing nepotism low pay hard work place.

a reply to: Darkmadness

This is what happens when productivity gains are not shared with the workers or invested in the company or not taxed away from the corps. The graph below shows that the corps/wealthy didn't buy into trickle down econ. It's a big fat lie.

a reply to: Kettu

It's not. I did temp staffing for some of their DCs a couple of years back. We had a guy get killed in a machine accident in NJ.

There was also a death at a Central PA location when an electric pallet jack operator crashed into a pole, it was suspected she fell asleep at the controls because she had been on mandatory 12 hour shifts.

The DCs are brutal, especially around the holidays. If you like working 7 days a week, 12+ hours each day, and being called in early for your shifts, than working for Amazon is for you.

I recently applied for a position at Amazon which I considered a slight step down because I thought it would be great working for them as an employer. I mean, hey, they ARE doing some really great things with the cloud.

Unfortunately, they had some really entry-level people interviewing me. It turned me off to them quickly.

Awwwwee. Somebody didn't get a trophy at work.......

#ing Millenials