Andy Newman is a real NYT journalist, but when I tried searching his latest posts on his page on the NYT website, I couldn't find this (even though other live contributions related to the story were showing up). Unsure if the post is fake, if it was real but deleted, if it just isn't showing up, or if I just can't see it without an NYT membership.
I also heard that the employee and the elderly person are one in the same, so who knows, details are super fuzzy right now.