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What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies

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Re: What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies

#171

Post by aaronem »

jvagner wrote: post #48
RougeFemme wrote: post #33

At one company where I worked, I resented the fact that the executive assistant to the CEO made more than I; after all, she was non-technical and "simply a secretary". Then she had a heart attack at her desk and died instantly. I felt guilty for my thoughts and resolved to find out exactly what her job entailed. About 2 years later, her replacement was struck by an aneurysm at her desk and died several weeks later. I…

i don't mean this crassly: that CEO probably needs more than one assistant, from the sounds of it.

More than one at a time, at the very least.

Re: What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies

#172

Post by philwelch »

ewoodrich wrote: post #112
philwelch wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you could say that "infanticide" happens all the time and is ignored in English-speaking countries It does, but most cases can be covered up as SIDS.

I'm seriously wondering, do you have a citation for that? I've never heard that mentioned before now.

You don't find it a little suspicious that there's a widespread medical euphemism for "this baby suddenly asphyxiated and we don't know how?" OK, not all SIDS cases are infanticide, most probably aren't, but it's nearly impossible to tell for sure.

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/19/nyregion/investigating-a-r...

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-67...

Re: What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies

#173

Post by notdonspaulding »

lmm wrote: post #158
grecy wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A while back I found a website (or article?) that interviewed elderly people who where essentially on their deathbeds. What do you regret, what would you do differently, etc. etc. Without fail, every single person said they wish they went to work less, and spent more time with their loved ones. I personally, am not good at learning lessons from other people, usually I have to learn "the hard way". I hope I can learn…

> Without fail, every single person said they wish they went to work less, and spent more time with their loved ones. I always wonder how much truth there is to that though? I mean, if you actually loved your job and preferred working to spending time with your family, wouldn't you still feel obliged to give that answer?

I don't think so. Someone saying this on their deathbed is not necessarily opining about how much they loved work vs. family in the moment. They're assigning a long-term absolute value on the amount of time they spent with each.

Say you spend 80 hours a week at a job you absolutely love, and 20 hours a week with a family you kind-of-get-along-with. At the end of your life, it might be that you decide "time spent at work" no matter how much you enjoyed it in the moment is just less fulfilling than "time spent at home" even when the day-to-day of home life is not as immediately gratifying.

Re: What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies

#175

Post by angersock »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #134
judk wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obits in the paper? Startup idea here, folks. Monitor my mail contacts etc and notify me when someone dies.

That's morbid, nobody would sign up for that.

"It's like Nagios, for the people you love!"

Even better: for the people you hate.

Re: What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies

#176

Post by philsnow »

lmm wrote: post #157
Confusion wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an athiest and I get really annoyed when people say such things [..] Why? You make it sound like you think that's an entirely reasonable response, but as a fellow atheist: I don't think it is. Why not just say 'Thanks'?

It can lead to a very dangerous fatalism. If you think it's in God's hands whether you survive a crash, why wear a seatbelt? More generally I get annoyed when someone says something false, even if I can't immediately see what mistakes it's going to lead them to make. My experience is that even the most benign-seeming of errors can cause problems sooner or later.

> It can lead to a very dangerous fatalism. If you think it's in God's hands whether you survive a crash, why wear a seatbelt?

Hand-wavey answer: something about the devil tempting Jesus to jump from the top of the temple because why not ? since he's the son of god obviously big daddy will save him right ? Then Jesus says something about not "testing" God.

Re: What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies

#177

Post by code_duck »

Confusion wrote: post #152
jlgaddis wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few months ago, I was on the losing end of a head-on motorcycle versus Jeep Cherokee crash and spent several days in the hospital. I had some pretty severe injuries but somehow managed to not smash my head in -- I don't wear a helmet and, although I had several broken bones, I somehow escaped with only had a few cuts and scrapes to my head. Several of the doctors and nurses said (words to the effect of) "someone up…

I'm an athiest and I get really annoyed when people say such things [..] Why? You make it sound like you think that's an entirely reasonable response, but as a fellow atheist: I don't think it is. Why not just say 'Thanks'?

It sounds from the tale that jlgaddis tried to be polite and eventually lost his patience.

Re: What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies

#178

Post by pc86 »

seanccox wrote: post #167
pc86 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly does race or gender have to do with anything in this comment thread?

As an American male who is white, my first reading of jigneshg's comment led me to a negative reaction, similar to those expressed above. So, for my part, race and gender had a great deal to do with my initial reaction, and I felt it important to bring that to light in my comment, because many of the reactions to jigneshg's comment insist that his language says something that, in the Indian context, it does not say.…

My point was that you reaction would not have substantively changed if you happened to be a white American female or a black American male.

Even taking into account the fact that Africans Americans are more religious as a group than their white counterparts, I don't think religiousity (except in the most extreme examples) would affect one's initial distaste upon reading the phrase

> Sometime it is very difficult for human to understand GOD and his punishment !

in that context.

My initial negative reaction was due mostly to the fact that I'm a native English speaker - which is where the misunderstanding stems from as well.

Re: What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies

#179

Post by lmm »

notdonspaulding wrote: post #173
lmm wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Without fail, every single person said they wish they went to work less, and spent more time with their loved ones. I always wonder how much truth there is to that though? I mean, if you actually loved your job and preferred working to spending time with your family, wouldn't you still feel obliged to give that answer?

I don't think so. Someone saying this on their deathbed is not necessarily opining about how much they loved work vs. family in the moment . They're assigning a long-term absolute value on the amount of time they spent with each. Say you spend 80 hours a week at a job you absolutely love, and 20 hours a week with a family you kind-of-get-along-with. At the end of your life, it might be that you decide "time spent at…

Well put it this way: if you say you wish you'd spent more time with your family that's not going to upset anyone. If you say you wish you'd spent less time with them and more time doing something else, that's not very nice.

Re: What Happens When One of Your Coworkers Dies

#180

Post by lmm »

bostonpete wrote: post #160
lmm wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can lead to a very dangerous fatalism. If you think it's in God's hands whether you survive a crash, why wear a seatbelt? More generally I get annoyed when someone says something false, even if I can't immediately see what mistakes it's going to lead them to make. My experience is that even the most benign-seeming of errors can cause problems sooner or later.

> it can lead to a very dangerous fatalism. If you think it's in God's hands whether you survive a crash, why wear a seatbelt? This seems like a red herring. I'm not a religious person, but the notion that it's possible for a divine power to influence human affairs doesn't necessarily imply the absence of free will. Do you have evidence of this dangerous fatalism? Other than the tiny percentage of fanatics who want t…

No, I don't have a study or anything, this is just personal experience.

> Other than the tiny percentage of fanatics who want to be martyrs, I don't consider religious folks to be an especially reckless bunch.

You see a more subtle form in the conservatism that goes with religion; many religions oppose positive social changes, and I think that's partly because of the assumption that nothing could be truly wrong with the world the way it is today.

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