A Facebook moderator died of a heart attack while on the job for the social media giant, according to a new report detailing miserable working conditions for the company's employees.
Keith Utley, a former Coast Guard lieutenant commander, was working an overnight shift at Facebook's moderator site in Tampa, Florida, last year when co-workers noticed him slump out of his chair, reported The Verge. The facts of the incident are only now being released.
Colleagues began performing CPR on Utley, but no defibrillator was available at the facility, and he was pronounced dead after paramedics rushed him to the hospital.
The report notes that Utley, a married 42-year-old father of two daughters, was under heavy stress at work, but does not directly link his heart attack to conditions at the moderation site.
Utley, like the other contractors who are paid to moderate Facebook content, was frequently exposed to violent or hateful acts, and the Tampa office was flagged as the company's worst-performing moderation site in North America, according to the report.
The facility's overseers did not initially notify employees that Utley had died, and then told managers not to discuss it with workers, according to current and former employees.