from the New York Times:
WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR FIVE DAYS
Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting dead at his desk for five days before anyone asked if he was feeling okay.
George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proof-reader at a New York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open plan office he shared with 23 other workers.
He quietly passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed until Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was working during the weekend.
His boss, Elliot Wachiaski, said: "George was always the first guy in each morning and the last to leave at night, so no one found it unusual that he was in the same position all the time and didn't say anything. He was always absorbed in his work and kept much to himself."
A post mortem examination revealed that he had been dead for five days after suffering a coronary. George was proofreading manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died.
You may want to give your co-workers a nudge occasionally.
14 comments:
LOL ...
and i needed that following one of the crappiest work weeks ever!
oh, that is just awful.
kelly...at least you didn't die unnoticed. bet your week's looking a little better now!
Just goes to show you how much we pay attention to our surroundings. Unbelieveable!
I wonder how long it would take to notice a dead bus driver?
I don't know about bus drivers Dougie, although I would suspect fairly quickly - like when the bus hit something or worse yet you didn't call out a stop:)
I just hope no one nods off Sunday morning - after reading this article I think I'll delegate one of the ushers to check them out :)
Bob, if I'm wearing my sunglasses Sunday morning, don't bother nudging me. I wear them so the pastors' can't tell if I'm sleeping.
All joking aside, that occurrence was really sad. What an example of the
" Me Generation " that exists in the secular world - 23 co-workers walk by for 5 days - that's a real wake-up call to Love Your Neighbor.
Yeah, that kind of work environment is just weird to me.
One of the things I do at work for my owm amusement is to go out of my way to say Hi or Good Morning to the people who would obviously prefer to just walk by as if I wasn't there.
One rather unfriendly night watchman, who for the longest time would just grunt a response, now greets me by name most mornings and is actually quite funny once you break down his barriers.
Don, I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
We don't mind if you sleep in church. Just no snoring.
:)
A story about this story was on "Urban Legends". The investigation found that the New York Times did in fact run this story (a long time ago), but that the actual even never happened.
So, if you die at your desk, somebody's going to notice. (I won't get into gross details about how and why, but really - they'll notice).
Thanks, Sheepdog. I was going to say that I'm pretty sure people lose some capacities when they die..and that missing that might prove difficult.. ;)
Oh, it was a New York Times story at one point. Their articles (stories... fairy tales) always get wide circulation but are thin on truth.
The New York Times "thin on turth"
Say it ain't so Joe
At least the ersatz fly story was real:)
Hey, Bob.
nudge
You still alive, comrade?
funny stuff there Sheepy :)
hehe
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