Amazon Warehouses Called 911 for mental health crises of at least 189 times in five years
E-commerce giant Amazon has long been reported to be an unpleasant place to hold a job. The article after the article has relayed claims from an extremely competitive workplace culture, employees being treated as soulless robots, sweatshop-esque performance requirements, and long hours of monotonous work. It includes mandatory seasonal overtime that some employees have sometimes said, resulting in injuries.
Here is an unimaginable look at what these working conditions have meant to some members of the richest man in the world workforce: From October 201[ads1]3 to October 2018, the 911 authorities responded to at least 189 times for "suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts and other mental health incidents" at Amazon stores, according to a daily report from the Daily Beast. Only the founders reported the report, with the 46 stores in 17 states where the calls were placed, accounting for "about a quarter of the sorting and fulfillment centers that make up the company's US network." (Otherwise, neither have any such calls listed, or registrations were inaccessible, Beast wrote.)
Some of the calls involved people who were upset by issues that were not related to their work on Amazon, while others involved people who were not employee or contract to work on the facilities. And while the Beast report noted that there was no evidence that Amazon employees had more mental health crises in the workplace, which necessitated intervention than the other companies, they found that many events appear to have been related to working conditions.
A former Amazon warehouse worker in Etna, Ohio, who manned a $ 14.50 one-hour warehouse, Nick Veasley, said he had to deal with hundreds of lasts an hour and described managers so focused on calculations that workers were afraid to talk to each other so they were not accosted for an unauthorized break. He told the animal that standing on his feet all day was correlated with the exacerbation of ankle pain that eventually required surgery, and when he returned to work after a two-month break, he was disciplined to take bath breakage that was needed to deal with irritable bowel syndrome and diverticulitis:
He received two revaluations and was told that another violation could lead to suspension or termination, he said. (Amazon called his account "very unlikely", saying that managers are working with HR to get a thorough conversation about "barriers" that lead to "adding time-off task.") "Usually, I can get myself out of a problem, but I couldn't "I'm not working on it on Amazon," said Veasley. "I felt I had a thousand pounds wrapped around my ankle, and it kept dragging me down and down and down, and there was no way out. "
After Veasley told a guard at the facility he would drive his Car from a cliff, Amazon called the police and he was placed during a three-day hold on a psychiatric ward.
" That place screwed me up so much it made me a depression where I was actually in a 72 hour wait in a psychiatric ward, Veasley Beasten said.
Six current or former Amazon employees who had undergone psychological crises "requiring emergency relief in the warehouse," told the Beastet that effortless work is required by Amazon, contributing to the situation. One said leaders would blame workers for not fulfilling quotas even when they were impossible to complete, while former Lakeland, Florida stock worker Jace Crouch, described the environment as an "insulating hell colony where people have collapse is a common occurrence." [19659005] The Beast report also noted that intervention by emergency personnel was not the end of the indignities encountered by the Amazon workers, with several telling the place that they were having trouble getting compensation or receiving treatment:
Of the six current or former Amazon Workers who spoke to The Daily Beast were five on leave from work. They said they struggled to get promised compensation, found counseling was insufficient or insurmountable, and in some cases they were fired.
After being removed from the Amazon by emergency response – a situation that some found humiliating workers often put in the short term medical or disability leave, entitling them to 60 percent of their pay and a return to work after psychiatric clearance. While on leave, some employees used the company's employee assistance program, which included three phone calls with an advisor, and also sought out psychiatric help. Even with Amazon-provided health insurance, the cost was often a financial burden.
Amazon denied the allegations in the report and told the Beastet in a statement that the number of calls entered into the warehouses was an "overgeneralization" that "does not take into account the total number of employees, working hours or our growing network." 19659014] "The physical and mental well-being of our employees is our top priority, and we are proud of both our efforts and overall success in this area," said Amazon to the site. "We offer comprehensive medical treatment from day 1 so that employees have access to care when they need it most, around the clock free and confidential counseling services, and various holiday and medical accommodation options that cover both mental and physical health problems. "
If you or someone you know has suicidal thoughts , please call National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or type Crisis Text Line at 741-741.
[The Daily Beast]
