An unhappy Amazon worker jumped from the company's building in Seattle on Monday after sending a critical email to co-workers as well as chief executive officer Jeff Bezos. He survived.
The man, who has yet to be identified, fell from Amazon's 12-story Apollo building about 8:45 a.m. local time and was transported to a Seattle hospital for treatment, authorities told Bloomberg News.
Seattle Fire Lt. Harold Webb told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that the man only fell about 20 feet onto a balcony and had non-life-threatening injuries.
While the contents of man's email weren't made public, a source told the Post-Intelligencer that the man had been put on an employment improvement plan after he asked to be moved to a different department. Employees risk termination if they don't perform well under the improvement plan.
Bloomberg reported another source saying the man criticized how the company handled his request and suggested that he might hurt himself.
"Our thoughts are with our colleague as he continues to recover," Amazon said in a statement. "He's receiving some of the best care possible and we will be there to support him throughout the recovery process."
Amazon's workplace environment came under scrutiny last year when a New York Times story took a critical look at its practices toward employees.
"At Amazon, workers are encouraged to tear apart one another's ideas in meetings, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are 'unreasonably high,'" said the Times story.
Bezos defended the company in a letter to his workers, saying the Amazon described in the New York Times article wasn't "the Amazon I know," reported Venture Beat.
"I strongly believe that anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay," Bezos said in his letter. "I know I would leave such a company.
"But hopefully, you don't recognize the company described. Hopefully, you're having fun working with a bunch of brilliant teammates, helping invent the future, and laughing along the way."
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