Man died at desk
I’ve promised to write a book one day about my country newspaper experiences. As I head towards the end of my time at the Kalgoorlie Miner some anecdotes are coming back to me.
This one isn’t strictly related to the Miner, but I should be able to adapt it for the book somehow.
Shortly after I arrived at the paper I noticed a magazine article pasted to the outside of my office window facing the sub-editors.
It was a story about a man who died at his desk and served as a warning to all of us: don’t be a slave to the office.
The article was eventually taken down, but it springs back into my mind occasionally. So tonight I went searching for it on the internet:
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 still 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 that 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. Ironically, George was proof-reading manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died.
That story appears on Snopes.com under the headline “Working stiff” and apparently it’s an urban legend.
Searching for it though, I found a story which does appear to be true from Finland, courtesy the BBC:
A tax office official in Finland who died at his desk was not found by his colleagues for two days. The man in his 60s died last Tuesday while checking tax returns, but no-one realised he was dead until Thursday.
The head of personnel at the office in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, said the man’s closest colleagues had been out at meetings when he died. He said everyone at the tax office was feeling dreadful - and procedures would have to be reviewed.
An anonymous government official told BBC News Online the man had been working in his own office with the door closed. “People thought he wanted to work in peace and no-one disturbed him,” the official said.
He was found only when a friend called to have lunch with him.
Whether fact or fiction, next time you see a work colleague snoozing at their desk, give them a nudge.
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