A 31-year-old senior software engineer died after falling from the 14th story of Google’s New York City offices building, according to the New York Post.
The New York Police Department confirmed to Insider that officers responded to a 911 call at about 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, reporting an unconscious person lying on the ground near 111 Eighth Avenue on West 15th Street in Manhattan.
The engineer’s identity has not been revealed until notification of his family, according to the NYPD. He was transferred to Bellevue Hospital and declared dead.
“We are very saddened by this tragic incident involving one of our employees,” Google Communications Manager Alex Joseph told Insider in a statement, noting that the company has provided on-site grief counselors for staffers on Friday and will continue to do so over the next several days.
Joseph continued: “Our thoughts are with their family, and out of respect for them and their privacy, we aren’t commenting further.”
The New York Post reported in February that another Google employee died in an apparent suicide at an apartment near Google’s headquarters. In his honor, the family set up a GoFundMe page.
According to the US Bureau of Statistics, 307 workplace-related deaths occurred in 2019, the highest number on record.
Google employees were affected by the latest wave of layoffs in the technology industry.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, stated on January 20 that the business was laying off 6% of its 12,000 employees.
Hundreds of affected employees turned to social media platforms such as LinkedIn to express their frustrations. Many people were outraged by the way the layoffs were handled.
