Amazon found its reportedly toxic work environment under the spotlight once again last month after a worker jumped off its HQ building in a suicide attempt. In the time since then, employees have taken to anonymous work talk app Blind to complain about the way the company has handled the incident.
The Blind app lets workers – verified using company emails before being anonymized - share details about their firms, such as salary and benefits, but it’s also a way of talking about the sort of things employers would rather be kept quiet.
Business Insider reports that in the case of the suicide attempt, a number of Amazon workers criticized the way it dealt with the situation. Its failure to send out a company-wide email addressing the issue was a particular cause for concern.
"One of us tried to kill themselves over work, and it seemed like beyond Blind, nobody cared. I didn't see people talking about it, I didn't see any mail from Jeff [Bezos] or my org VP...Life looked normal and mundane. This seems we have normalized this. We shouldn't," wrote one employee.
A lot has been made of Amazon’s Performance Improvement plan (PIP). In last year’s damning New York Times report, it was referred to as Amazon code for “you’re in danger of being fired.” The man who jumped from the company’s building had been placed on one, and it comes under a lot of fire from Blind users.
"PIP has become a curse, I spent sleepless nights and went into depression for a while and then took charge to overcome it. The stress passes to yourself and the family. I pray someday there is an end to it."
Other complaints on the app include Amazon being against unionization, and CEO Jeff Bezos’ competitiveness creating an unhappy work culture. In a poll of 241 Blind users, 41 percent said they would "never want to work at Amazon even if it pays $100,000 more than top offer," while 12 percent said they are employed by Amazon but "never want to work there."
There were some people, however, who didn’t place the blame at Amazon’s door. Users pointed out that, despite the firm’s reputation, other factors could have been responsible for the man’s suicide attempt.
