A whole web site devoted to horror stories about Amazon.com

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

Wow, this is serious:

The next day I filed a complaint with HR and CC’ed my manager. This led to a phone call with HR asking me to allow them to investigate the situation and to keep the incident in confidentiality until the investigation was complete. (HR had trouble providing me with follow-up in writing— they preferred to keep everything face to face or over the phone.)

Naively, I agreed to keep it confidential until the investigation was complete. HR’s ultimate finding was that since no one else had witnessed the assault, and because my attacker denied it, that there was no proof that it had happened.

I had to suffer through a “come to Jesus” meeting with HR and my attacker (a 40-year-old male profusely weeping and carrying on about how he was so scared he would lose his job, his house, etc.) in which I was repeatedly told that my report of the assault was merely my perception. “Everyone’s perceptions are different,” was the key phrase.

Even after I escalated to the internal Legal department (where I formerly worked and had friends), I was redirected back to HR to speak to another HR specialist who accused me of wanting my attacker to get fired or somehow punished another way. I told them I just wanted to feel safe at work again.

Since my attacker was STILL working across the aisle from me, I asked my manager if I could work from another workstation. I was told that there were no other workstations available (which was bull— I could walk around the corner on my floor and find plenty of empty spots). However, I was told that I could work from home or from other Amazon buildings as needed. A week later, my manager’s manager took me aside and told me that my absence from my workstation was affecting the team and that I needed to be there at my desk. (More bull— I have no direct reports and all of my work is written… I attended all meetings and everyone communicates with me via email anyway.)

Post external references

  1. 1
    https://sites.google.com/site/thefaceofamazon/home/assaulted-at-amazon
Source