WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS 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 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 proofreading
> > manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died.
> >
> > You may want to give your co-workers a nudge occasionally.
>
> > Moral of the story: Don't work too hard. Nobody notices anyway


and to think I kill myself at work

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

my gosh! is this really true?

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

OMG! Somehow, I do believe that it might be true!

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

whoa!

A very dear friend of the family had a fatal heart attack at his job and no one noticed till the next morning. (he also worked nights so the only people really around was him and one or 2 other people)

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

More info

George Turklebaum, R.I.P.
Sometimes death truly is a 'dull, dreary affair...'

Dateline: 01/31/01

By David Emery

I would be remiss if I let another week pass without commenting on the strange story of George Turklebaum.

According to reports published in the British press, Mr. Turklebaum, a proofreader in a New York publishing firm, sat stone-dead in his office chair for five days last October before his coworkers realized it.

This has aroused Yankee skepticism.

In England the item has appeared in the Birmingham Sunday Mercury (which takes credit for the scoop), the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Times, on the BBC and no doubt in other venues, but American papers have by and large not seen fit to propagate it.

As the story goes, the 51-year-old Turklebaum suffered a fatal coronary one day while working at his desk. Apparently none of his 23 coworkers thought it remarkable to see him slumped motionless in his chair for five days running, because Turklebaum kept mostly to himself and was always the first to arrive and the last to leave the office every day.

It's the sort of scenario Somerset Maugham must have had in mind when he said, 'Death is a very dull, dreary affair.' But let's be scientific. Medical examiners say that within three days after a person dies, the corpse should exhibit obvious signs of decay: swelling, discoloration, fluid leakage and that distinctive odor of death. It's unlikely those symptoms could have gone unnoticed by Turklebaum's fellow employees on into the fifth day postmortem.

Nevertheless, the Birmingham Sunday Mercury stands by its account. Proudly.

'We reported in December that New Yorker George Turklebaum had died at work — but none of his colleagues noticed for FIVE days,' a follow-up article says. 'We estimate that international interest in poor George's woeful tale means that more than 100,000 emails have now been sent from office worker to office worker.'

'Of course the story is true,' the Mercury continues, responding to questions about its veracity. Nevermind that the New York City white pages don't list a single Turklebaum in the area; the item came from a reliable source — a Big Apple radio station.

It's interesting to find the Sunday Mercury speaking as if it scooped the story, given that its first report was dated December 17 and the Guardian had already run a less-detailed version two days earlier.

Among the colorful details added in the Mercury's rendition was this tag: 'Ironically, George was proofreading manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died.'

Does anyone else hear the phrase 'too good to be true' ringing in their ears?

In any case, the Mercury has it right when it boasts that Turklebaum-mania has swept the Internet in recent weeks. The story resonates with disaffected office workers everywhere. As one email correspondent put it, the tale bespeaks 'a universal fear of being ignored (and unappreciated) in the workplace.'

Not to mention a universal fascination with the macabre ... and the unlikely.

Update: After the above commentary was written, the Birmingham Mercury vetted an alternative explanation of how the Turklebaum story originated, claiming it was culled from the pages of the Weekly World News, a supermarket tabloid renowned in the U.S. for its unbelievable 'scoops' about space aliens impregnating human females and the like. We have since confirmed that the story did, in fact, appear for the first time anywhere in the December 5, 2000 issue of WWN under the headline 'Dead Man Works for a Week!'

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

.

.

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

that would not be me, they would find me dead out to lunch or shopping

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

that has to be the strangest story ever..

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

wow...this is crazy.....i always at least say hi to everyone so hopefully i woulda noticed!

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

OMG
cant believe that
how horrible, poor man

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

This could never happen in my office...my annoying boss always looks over your shoulder to see what you're doing...

Re: WORKER DEAD AT DESK FOR 5 DAYS New York Times

I have been brain dead at my job for the past
month, does that count?

I really have to get a recruiter or something after my wedding