David Hughes, CEO
Amtrak
60 Massachusetts Ave., NE
Washington, DC 20002
Dear Mr. Hughes:
I recently read about an Amtrak employee, Rebecca Gettleman, who was fired for being “accident prone.” She was injured while assisting an inebriated passenger with maneuvering the stairs. Granted, she has apparently had some other mishaps, but from the way they were described in the article I read, these “priors” were for the most part not her fault.
To her credit, Ms. Gettleman displayed compassion and behaved like a true samaritan in attempting to prevent injury in another. She certainly could have stood at her post and let the Fates take care of the gentleman. Perhaps she didn’t care much about the man after all. She may have simply been acting in the best interest of the company she works for, not wanting a customer to injure himself and sue Amtrak when she could possibly prevent it.
Either way, I don’t believe this woman is a liability to your organization. I hope that you will review her case looking at all of the factors involved and not simply the statistics on paper.
Truly,
Liz Mann
To: lizletters@earthlink.net
From: Rebecca
Subject: Amtrak employee fired
Dear Liz,
I am the Rebecca Gettleman in question of your letter dated Feb 20th
this year. I cannot tell you how touched I am that a total stranger
has gone out of her way to do a small thing that means so much.
Just to keep you informed, my appeal was Feb 23rd and they have until
Apr 23rd to come down with a decision. They are taking their time!
Maybe Matier and Ross will do a follow up after the decision, we'll see.
I believe anyone in the same position as me that evening would have
done the same thing as me. I could not risk watching a young man die
in front of me knowing I may have been able to prevent it.
Thank you very kindly.
Rebecca
Hi Rebecca,
You're welcome! It is a treat to get an e-mail from you. I think you are the first
person who is "involved" in one of the issues I've written about to discover
my site online. Do you mind if I post your e-mail message as a "reply"?
(It's okay if you'd rather I didn't). I'm curious, too -- how did Matier and Ross
hear about your predicament?
Good luck and take care.
Liz
Liz, I do not mind at all if you post my reply. Thank you again.
I do not who tipped off Andy Ross, he just called me one day out of
the blue! Surely someone I know, but I'll probably never know.
Rebecca
