“Sometimes a mental health story is not as simple as it first appears,” commented Frank King, The Mental Health Comedian and Safety Institute Associate.

In a new investigative report, reporters from the Daily Beast found that over a period of five years, 189 emergency calls were made from 46 Amazon warehouse sites for employee mental health episodes — many of which were suicide-related.

Employees attributed work stress primarily to high work performance quotas, poor working conditions like timed bathroom breaks and having to work in social isolation.

“It’s this isolating colony of hell where people having breakdowns is a regular occurrence,” former Amazon employee Jace Crouch told the Daily Beast. “[It’s] mentally taxing to do the same task superfast for 10-hour shifts, 4 or 5 days a week.”

“The story highlights why we need to do more to protect the mental health of employees. Though the story is about Amazon, the reality is, mentally unhealthy work conditions exist everywhere. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this evidence,” King prompted.

From The Mighty online mental health digest:

• Depression and anxiety cost the global economy about $1 trillion per year in lost productivity.

• In a survey 56 percent of respondents said anxiety and stress affects their work performance and 50 percent said it affects their quality of work.

• 1/3rd of U.S. employees are chronically overworked.

As someone who has experienced depression and suicide to the point of killing himself more times than he can count, former writer for The Tonight Show for 20 years, Frank King, is a corporate comedian, syndicated humor columnist, and podcast personality, who was featured on CNN’s Business Unusual. Today, Frank King works with corporations and associations that want to learn the signs, symptoms and solutions for depression and thoughts of suicide, to improve employee satisfaction, increase productivity, reduce healthcare costs, and most importantly, save lives.

For more information about Frank’s workplace programs visit https://safetyinstitute.com/frank-king