
Amazon Employees Vent About How a Recent Suicide Attempt Was Handled - Swizec
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/286392
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jimmywanger
I know that in the San Francisco Bay Area, everytime a student from a highly
pressured high school (think Gunn, Palo Alto, Monta Vista) commits suicide by
walking across the train tracks, the more publicity it gets, the more copycat
suicides happen.

IMO this response by Amazon is the best. Let things slowly sink into obscurity
and that way people don't get stupid ideas about getting attention.

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rtpg
I think coverage can influence effect here

Talk about it like "Someone stood on the tracks and killed themselves", and
now every suicidal person who sees the track think about that. Many suicides
are impulsive acts (helped by a state of mind, but few have the willpower to
plan their suicide), so these tiny facts that can influence people in need can
kill them. Avoiding specifics of the death can be enough to avoid copycat
behavior, because it remains a bit abstract.

Instead, covering it as "we want everyone to know that there are these
programs that we have in place for those suffering" (and of course having a
real feedback loop). Then if only a couple people go in after reading this,
you have done some good!

Our mental state is the combination of many tiny positives and negatives.
Contributing even just a small amount might be enough to get someone into
proper treatment.

(Amazon should also be doing its own work to figure out if changes are needed.
We spend a good chunk of our lives in the workplace)

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jimmywanger
> Instead, covering it as "we want everyone to know that there are these
> programs that we have in place for those suffering" (and of course having a
> real feedback loop).

That should be done regardless of whether or not there are suicides/attempts.
That's orthogonal to the original point, which is that attention paid to a
suicide tends to encourage copycat suicides.

Just ignore the fact that they existed and you can do a much better job
ameliorating these things. Why even give them any news coverage at all or
acknowledgement?

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rtpg
I've had classmates pass away. The school would then run counseling sessions
for those who wanted it. It wasn't to talk about how the classmate passed
away, but to talk about how to accept this and manage it.

When a person close to you dies, you likely want some of these services.

Now, I don't think we should be talking about _how_ these cases happen
(because of what you bring up). But people close to the situation _do_ get
affected. They hear about it outside the news, and might personally know the
person. They deserve help.

~~~
jimmywanger
> It wasn't to talk about how the classmate passed away, but to talk about how
> to accept this and manage it.

You're missing the point. By doing anything out of the ordinary when something
like this happens, you're giving it attention and calling it out.

It'd be like making safe driving classes available everytime somebody dies in
a drunk driving accident.

These classes and service should exist regardless.

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int_handler

        Why this society and these millennials believe they are entitled only to good things, positive experience and rosy road ahead?
    

Of course, only millennials care about improving workplace conditions, and all
millennials are whiny entitled crybabies.

/s

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phailhaus
I fucking hate flippant comments like that. A human being was pushed to
killing themselves, and this asshole is sitting there pretending as if the
reason was because someone looked at them funny.

~~~
jimmywanger
> A human being was pushed to killing themselves

Where in the article did it say that? Rather, a human being decided to try
(and fail) at killing themselves for reasons unknown.

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phailhaus
Er, how does that 'clarification' change anything? They tried to _end their
life_ , and this armchair psychologist is only too keen to assume that they're
overreacting to minor workplace hardships. Shamefully disrespectful,
attempting suicide is not a joke.

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nitwit005
Sending out a company wide email for a suicide attempt at a company with
hundreds of thousands of workers? It seems like you'd end up sending something
like one of those emails a month. It'd get depressing pretty fast...

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jcizzle
It is unfortunate that so many people are looking to blame anything - big
companies, government, whatever - anytime their worldview has to reconcile a
hint of the imperfections of humanity.

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int_handler
Yes, we should just leave all problems that we face as is and put absolutely
no effort into solving them and improving our well-being.

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codeonfire
This cracks me up. An anonymous chat app that immediately authenticates its
users. They are probably selling your chat messages back to employers behind
closed doors.

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Esau
This is why I have stopped buying things from Amazon. I feel uncomfortable
buying from a company that treats its employees this way.

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Something1234
It's too convenient, but I can't stop. However if the prices keep creeping up
I might just drop them.

