A woman who was seriously injured in the New Year’s Eve truck attack in New Orleans says that the Amazon warehouse where she works has denied her request for a leave of absence.
In an interview with The New Orleans Advocate, 23-year-old Alexis Scott-Windham of Mobile, Alabama says that her request for a leave of absence was denied despite the fact that she still has a bullet lodged in her foot and is suffering from what the newspaper describes as “multiple fractures” as a result of the incident, which took the lives of 14 people and left several more injured.
Scott-Windham, who is the mother of a one-year-old girl, tells the Advocate that she fears she’ll have to find a new job now because her injuries have left her in no condition to work.
“Other than that, I’m just thankful to be here,” Scott-Windham told the paper.
UPDATE: The New Orleans Advocate reported Amazon released a statement Friday afternoon in which it said the woman has now been granted time off with pay.
I once had a boss who demanded an employee bring in a doctor’s note after phoning in sick. Even after the employee sent a selfie from her hospital bed.
Well, to play devils’ advocate here, how much time off have they taken before this, or did they get injured at an event that they called in sick to go to when they should have been at work???
I say this because I had a co-worker in the 1990’s not get their sick time/PTO approved because they got hit by a bat at an Angels baseball game they called in sick to go to, because they burned up their vacation the week prior to go to Disneyland.
They were habitual abusers of sick time/PTO so there was no leinancy.
What I take away from this is that the initial decision is pure Amazon.
Then there was a news story making them look bad.
Oops.
However VTR makes a valid point. There are employees who – year after year, without fail – use up all of their sick / personal necessity days by the end of February (if not January).
But I think that initial rejection was just Amazon being Amazon.
Well to be a devils devils advocate, Amazon may have required a doctors note but it was not approved because Amazon used United Healthcare. United Healthcare probably only approved an ibuprofen and denied the ambulance ride and told them they have to wait for an appointment in 2028.
I’m assuming that this worker was shot on her own time and not while actually working (otherwise Amazon would be liable if she was injured on the job).
If that’s the case there’s plenty of valid reasons to deny her request since they’re not responsible for someone getting hurt if it doesn’t happen on the job. Especially if her metrics are below average
I get that, and while I don’t understand why they wouldn’t grant it (since they generally have a shortage of workers), a lot of companies don’t like to hold a job open for someone who can’t currently go to work.
A lot of Amazon’s labor shortage issues are their own doing.
Without knowing the history of this employee, everything is speculation. There are a multitude of reasons why I would deny someone unpaid time off in an event like this, or even if they got hit by a meteor. The last straw may not be the persons fault, but everything leading up to that day off request is.
I hate Amazon, but I hate lying lazy policy abusive co-workers more, so I am having a hard time simply blaming Amazon based on the face of everything. For all we know there is only an app to call in sick with and “shot by domestic terrorist” is not on the drop down menu, and the employee just got out of jail after missing a few weeks of work.
I agree with everything you said, but Amazon made a stupid move. They should have known that bizarre crimes attract continued interest and should have foreseen that news story. They did sort of turn it to their advantage by being magnanimous after exposure – but on the other hand they would have looked so bad if they had merely capitulated to an unpaid leave offer that this offer was the only reasonable action.
When you shove someone under the bus it’s better not to have a lot of witnesses.
Well, looks like the employee did not select “shot by domestic terrorist” on the sick leave app.
" When reached for comment by FOX Business, Amazon said the company had just learned on Friday morning that Scott-Windham had mistakenly requested the wrong type of leave, and the company is making it right."
I can believe that. Leave policies vary with each company or organization. There are other types of leave than just sick and vacation leave. It’s not obvious to the average employee which one should be used in an extraordinary circumstance such as a terrorist attack.
