Amazon employee suicide attempt raises further questions about tech giant’s toxic work culture
- 7 years ago
SEATTLE — An Amazon employee was recovering in the hospital this week after leaping from a company building in a failed suicide attempt.
The man sent a scathing email to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and copied in hundreds of co-workers on Monday morning, then leaped from the Apollo Building in Seattle, Bloomberg reported.
Despite falling 20 feet onto a balcony, the man survived with non-life threatening injuries.
The news will once again shine a spotlight on Amazon’s hyper-demanding work culture, after a New York Times investigation last year exposed the company’s data-driven approach to overworking employees like Ambot mules.
Jeff Bezos has become one of the world’s richest men on the back of Amazon’s success — but that success has come at a cost for some of his employees.
The Amazon worker who jumped on Monday had asked for a transfer to another department, but was instead put on an employee improvement plan, according to Bloomberg.
According to a former employee who was put on the plan when she revealed she had breast cancer, that was Amazon’s code for “you’re in danger of being fired,” the New York Times reported last year.
Amazon disputed the New York Times’ depiction of the company as an unforgiving workplace that pushed employees over the edge and had reportedly taken measures to soften its image.
But when your staff are, quite literally, pushed over the edge, perhaps it’s time to take another look at your employment policies. Otherwise, everyone will just think you’re a real Amhole.
The man sent a scathing email to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and copied in hundreds of co-workers on Monday morning, then leaped from the Apollo Building in Seattle, Bloomberg reported.
Despite falling 20 feet onto a balcony, the man survived with non-life threatening injuries.
The news will once again shine a spotlight on Amazon’s hyper-demanding work culture, after a New York Times investigation last year exposed the company’s data-driven approach to overworking employees like Ambot mules.
Jeff Bezos has become one of the world’s richest men on the back of Amazon’s success — but that success has come at a cost for some of his employees.
The Amazon worker who jumped on Monday had asked for a transfer to another department, but was instead put on an employee improvement plan, according to Bloomberg.
According to a former employee who was put on the plan when she revealed she had breast cancer, that was Amazon’s code for “you’re in danger of being fired,” the New York Times reported last year.
Amazon disputed the New York Times’ depiction of the company as an unforgiving workplace that pushed employees over the edge and had reportedly taken measures to soften its image.
But when your staff are, quite literally, pushed over the edge, perhaps it’s time to take another look at your employment policies. Otherwise, everyone will just think you’re a real Amhole.