The One Who Jumped

CW: Discussion of a suicide attempt. Please read with care, or skip ahead to Prelude to The Long Night.

I wasn’t the only one crumbling under the weight of workplace abuse at Amazon. Another employee, in another building, attempted suicide by jumping¹². Before doing so, he sent an email describing the abuse to a part of the company. HR quickly scrubbed the email, but it circulated on the anonymous workplace app Blind.

It was like I was reading my own diary: the humiliation, the overwork, feeling trapped. It wasn’t just me. It wasn’t just a misunderstanding with a co-worker, it was part of a wider pattern. I too had considered taking my life over it, and I’m very glad I didn’t.

To the one who jumped: If you’re reading this, I’m so sorry for what you went through, and I’m glad you survived. You helped countless engineers who felt silenced across the company. Your words helped inspire Amazon to change its performance review system.

You made history.

1. DeMay, D. (2016, November 28). Amazon worker leaps from building at Seattle campus. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/Amazon-worker-leaps-from-building-at-Seattle-10640986.php ↩︎
2. Carson, B. (2016, November 28). An Amazon employee was injured after leaping from 12-story building at the Seattle Headquarters. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employee-attempted-suicide-from-12-story-building-at-seattle-headquarters-2016-11
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