12.14.2007

Coworkers, please nudge me occasionally

From the New York Times:

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 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 that time and didn't say anything. He was always absorbed in his work and kept much to himself."

The moral of the story: Don't work to hard. Nobody notices anyway.

2 comments:

Ky • twopretzels.com said...

Oh.my.gosh.

I am AWESTRUCK.

How in the world would they not have known that their CO-WORKER was DEAD?!

Wrestling Kitties said...

Seriously, this is crazy!!!! First, just someone laying at their desk would be cause for notice, but second, wouldn't he start to smell?!?!!? And that is sad that no one talked to him for 5 days :(

That is sad and gross.