A letter to Amazon.
I feel that Amazon has been negligent concerning my safety. And they have been negligent in their conduct concerning my well-being after a fellow employee attacked me. Perhaps I acted too much like a typical victim and kept the incident to myself for a few hours but as the intimidation and shock of the attached wore off, I began to realize the pain my neck was in. I was traumatized by this event, in spite of my efforts to let the incident slide, the more I had to acknowledge that it was a brutal attack. However this was just the beginning of the stresses to come. Upon reporting the incident to Human Resources at Amazon an investigation was conducted and I was surprised to see myself in close proximity with the attacker while the investigation was in process as I was concerned for my well being as I knew that tensions would be high. At one point I asked to go home for I felt unsafe.
Amazon called me into the human resources and asked me if I wanted to have the attacker fired, moved or a formal apology. I chose the apology but I didn’t feel I really had a choice in the matter.
Later I found out from the doctor that I had whiplash, stretched nerves and rotation of several vertebrae’s. Three doctors told me that I might have permanent nerve damage in my neck. If I would have known that I was hurt
that bad, thus confirming my suspicions that the attack was vicious in nature, I would have requested that the brute be fired in spite of the consequences I might have suffered from other employees. As I continued to have to work with this person and found myself subject to her presence more and more and felt a sense of intensifying hostilely I felt my only prudent action was to remove myself from the threat as I felt I was in danger of another attack, especially when Amazon apparently condoned that type of behavior. The management of Amazon gave this same attacker the highest mention award just weeks after she hurt me.
They had failed to do anything to show that physically abuse of fellow employees was not to be tolerated by the company. If anything they exalted her and put me in an impossible position.
I wrote a statement that I was irked by the events on my web page and Amazon got a hold of the statement and was far more concerned about the attacker crying about what I wrote than they were about my injury or that I was attached. They even called me in on my day off to humiliate me, call me a liar and a harasser and tell me that I was the “eye of the storm”. They said they didn’t want to talk about my “medical stuff.” My mother and I, who worked on the same shift as I did, felt that we were in danger working for management that was so indifferent to a person being injured purposely by another employee in their own facility. We were both in fear for our safety and we quit that day.
In summary a very large woman attacked me from behind and shook me by the neck aggressively enough to give me a severe injury. She stated immediately afterwards that I was performing at a level that was likely to make her and others have to work harder and that I should work at a slower pace. Amazon tried to make the incident appear like a non-violent act. They completely ignored evidence that it was not horse-play and even took a sympathetic stance toward her and a hostile stance towards me, ignoring the increasing physical evidence that the attack was a vicious and brutal attempt to keep me from working at a more efficient production level. I don’t understand why they would want to keep her, as even other employees had told me that she intimidated them. The company’s actions completely disregard their statements of desired safety and acceptable employee interaction; their actions appear to condone the very things they state are unacceptable. The work place is dangerous and their projections of security and policy are a façade. I feel compensation is in order for being subjected to work at a place that tolerates conditions such as these.
Furthermore, Amazon interfered with my workman’s compensation by calling them after September 5th and telling them false information about the injury. Which led to the suspension of my vital medical treatment.
Due to strict physical work restrictions and time spent in therapy and other medical treatments, I am unable to get another job. This, in turn with high co-pays for my personal insurance, is putting a great financial burden upon my family.
