The Life And Death Of An Amazon Warehouse Temp

I found this to be an insightful but disturbing read. Who knows what really happened, but things might have been different if the worker was allowed to call 911 right away.

It isn't clear from any of the official reports on Jeff’s death—Amazon's, the county's or the state's—how quickly Jeff was found and treated. The Amazon report says that he was discovered at “approximately 2:30 a.m., which is within one minute of his last reported pick.” Yet according to a county EMS report, the 911 call came in at 2:39 a.m., suggesting he may have been down for several minutes before he was found. 2 Amazon said CPR and the defibrillator were "quickly provided" by its in-house team. However, the ambulance didn’t get there until 2:49 a.m.—nearly 20 minutes after his last apparent pick, a significant amount of time in a cardiac emergency.

My initial reply before hitting the Link...
as a Lift Equipment Operator, I put my cellphone into Flight Mode. We have a communication ban in the Bonded Warehouse I am in. Here is a major reason why; I operate a pallet truck which is a motorized skateboard hauling a ton of glass product behind me and I stand on a platform in front. Physics dictate that I am the part of the equation that is squishy and most prone to fatal injury. I have had Bell Canada try to kill me by making a customer service satisfaction phone call to me while I was in motion. This is why I put my phone in Flight Mode now. The flip side of this, as I suspect from the Amazon Article, is that I have to take enormous steps to get aid if I get injured. The area of the warehouse is bloody enormous; and there are 3 floors plus separate shipping & receiving docks. There are other Order Fulfillment personnel on the same floor as you. They may or may not be in your current Pick Location. There are obstructions to be able to view each other. Good relations between staff is needed, we look out for each other. But while working you can be so far away from other pickers & personnel that it will make getting help impossible. You must be a Competent Person (legal term) to operate Lift Equipment and follow procedure. This is why it is a Skilled Labour or Tradesperson position. We have defibs on the floor, however they with your coworkers can be a long ways away.

I work in a large corporation, certainly smaller then an Amazon warehouse facility, and we have our own emergency phone number, our own medics, and on sight defibrillators. We are even trained annually how to use them and provide CPR. When you are talking about that many layers, there is always the risk that one of those layers will save your life, or it will just add to delays to saving your life.

That being said, I have seen or heard of people dying while at my work. Shit happens. Generally it wasn't the direct result of what they were doing, but rather just the suckiness of that which we call death.

20 minutes to be noticed, for people to not freak out and get their heads on straight and for paramedics to actually show up at the scene? Sounds pretty damn good if you ask me. This is non-issue in my opinion.

I don't need to know how the sausage is made at Amazon. Just make sure my package isn't late.

Thank you. Posted to my Linked In profile (with my Recruiter & Employment agency tagged of course). I have been an operator since 1997; 10 years of which puplishing newspapers for a large Media chain here in the Nation's Capitol advocating Worker Rights.
Thank you so very much.
BlackDragon1971

I work for an agency with a Provincial Crown Corporation (gov't company) as the client... we do all the booze for our region of the province. and soon to be sold privately in select grocery store through the Distribution Centre(s)

odditory said:

I don't need to know how the sausage is made at Amazon. Just make sure my package isn't late.

Click to expand...

agreed!

As a previous Amazon Employee, they do all they can to keep people safe. There are usually Hydration stations at reasonable locations around the facilities. They were really big on safety and had safety briefings daily. The LEX1 site in Lexington KY is huge and I could see if someone dropped dead he'd be there for a few min before someone found him. Truth is though, I've read stories where athletes have random heart attacks. Stress is the other killer.

I personally have stock in Amazon and after recent robotics competitions earlier this year I believe Amazon will be cutting 70% of their employees within the next 10 yrs.

bmellis1984 said:

As a previous Amazon Employee, they do all they can to keep people safe. There are usually Hydration stations at reasonable locations around the facilities. They were really big on safety and had safety briefings daily. The LEX1 site in Lexington KY is huge and I could see if someone dropped dead he'd be there for a few min before someone found him. Truth is though, I've read stories where athletes have random heart attacks. Stress is the other killer.

I personally have stock in Amazon and after recent robotics competitions earlier this year I believe Amazon will be cutting 70% of their employees within the next 10 yrs.

Click to expand...

You should look at Newegg's system. They benefit from being specialized in electronics, so their current system works well. I could see Amazon creating a similar system. I'm not sure how many ppl you can cut from such a system, but you can at least cut down on having workers walking 12 miles a day.

Life (and death) happens.

I sometimes have to go into the office for after hours IT work.

If something where to happen to me where I wasn't able to make a phone call, it would likely be hours before anyone came looking for me. Even if the wife was expecting me back at a certain time, and I wasn't returning any texts or calls, she wouldn't be able to get into the building until someone came and let her in, which could easily take another hour or more.

nutzo said:

Life (and death) happens.

I sometimes have to go into the office for after hours IT work.

If something where to happen to me where I wasn't able to make a phone call, it would likely be hours before anyone came looking for me. Even if the wife was expecting me back at a certain time, and I wasn't returning any texts or calls, she wouldn't be able to get into the building until someone came and let her in, which could easily take another hour or more.

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That's true for a lot of ppl. I worked a week solo doing midshift. I could easily die at the beginning of the shift and it'd be 12 hours later before someone found me.

When it's time. it's time.
I'm reasonably healthy, but I'm "do not resuscitate". I've seen enough people recover from a hear attack or stroke. The expense and the quality of life afterward. No thanks. If I'm the only one around when you drop, you probably ain't gonna make it.

Wow really shocked at what I read as cold hearted replies ala "Whatever dude just as long as my shit shows up on time." Just wow. I assume you didn't take the time to read the entire article.

This guy worked his ass off trying to support his family and was met with unfortunate circumstances. I find it embarrassing that we're living in an age where (I assume) Amazon didn't pony up any type of support for the family in fear they'd look guilty of something.

Terribly sad story.

odditory said:

I don't need to know how the sausage is made at Amazon. Just make sure my package isn't late.

Click to expand...

lmao

Megalith said:

I found this to be an insightful but disturbing read. Who knows what really happened, but things might have been different if the worker was allowed to call 911 right away.

It isn't clear from any of the official reports on Jeff’s death—Amazon's, the county's or the state's—how quickly Jeff was found and treated. The Amazon report says that he was discovered at “approximately 2:30 a.m., which is within one minute of his last reported pick.” Yet according to a county EMS report, the 911 call came in at 2:39 a.m., suggesting he may have been down for several minutes before he was found. 2 Amazon said CPR and the defibrillator were "quickly provided" by its in-house team. However, the ambulance didn’t get there until 2:49 a.m.—nearly 20 minutes after his last apparent pick, a significant amount of time in a cardiac emergency.

Click to expand...

This is not surprising to me at all..... The size of the Amazon build is the reason to not call 911..... Security will know better how to direct any emergency response such as directing to the closes dock, opening secure doors prior to their arrival, and ensure that any equipment which could impead emergency response are moved. This is standard in any large building....I worked in a 200,000 foot data center. To call 911 to the datacenter with no help from security would cause a slower response than having security be a partner and ensure that EMT can get to the area as fast as possible.

Another thing, we have no idea how long he was on the floor before someone found him.... Plus they had EMT's on site doing CPR......How many companies have you worked for that have trained EMT's on-site?

While sympathy for guy that died and his family, sounds like to Amazon did everything possible.

Later....