Engineer falls to death at Qualcomm

David Wu, a Qualcomm engineer, fell to his death from the sixth floor of Qualcomm’s AY building at its headquarters complex Sunday. The death was originally reported by Chinese media.

Similar Qualcomm suicides took place in 2010 and 2012. Because of layoffs and fears of more, along with weakeniing financial results, morale at Qualcomm has been low for some time. Qualcomm stated, “This is a sad week for us at Qualcomm and we are focused on providing support to our employees during this difficult time. As this is a private matter, we cannot provide further details. Our deepest condolences are with the famiy, friends, and colleagues of Mr. David Wu."

There are conflicting reports among employees. My original source (unidentified) told me, “[Wu] was at director level and then got demoted and became a [temporary]. He had been full-time for many years.”

Some employees are posting sharp comments on the website thelayoff.com. “My friend passed away today and Qualcomm is doing nothing about [it] except for sending an email,” said one anonymous poster. “Something is wrong with this company!!!” He or she claimed there have been five company suicides in eight years, but I could not confirm that.