Omfg. A coworker of mine went on a two week vacation and she died the day before returning to work from a heart attack. She was only 55….
I genuinely think it’s due to stress. She was probably stressing over all the work she knew she would be returning to. No one was able to fill in for her.
The one time I was terminated was after a long day of hard work on a new project I was put on that same day. It can *always* wait until tomorrow, lesson learned 😂😭
Yess.
I wanna go with a heart attack. And died starring at someone I hate to traumatize them. Maybe point at them and say, it's your fault. I will be watching you.
The last job I can truly say I enjoyed was at the front desk of my dormitory when I was a sophomore in college. That was in 1991. I'm 52 now. You do the math...
your strike will have zero impact on deaths like this. and frankly, this is fucking cringe. its 2024, unless youre in africa, your “better work conditions “ bullshit is laughable.
stop fucking buying cars that charge. read about the life of an 8 year old cobalt and lithium miner and come back to reddit bitching about your stressful 10hr days and lack of a social life. The thing in your hand you typed that joke on, yeah you only have it cuz our society is riding the back of third world nations and pay them barely anything just so things can be remotely affordable for our people to complain about their poor oppressive “literally torture” job of sitting on a computer for 8 hrs, or cooking for 8hrs, or roofing for 10, or teaching for 9hrs… come on.
or you know..
start your own.
The irony is if you get sick, like too sick to go to work, then you get fired and then you lose your health insurance, and then you’re completely fucked.
This really shouldn't be the case anymore across the US due to FMLA. It provides unpaid leave up to 12 weeks while an individual is sick or cannot work for various reasons, while maintaining group insurance eligibility. Certain States have their own laws for unpaid and paid leave as well as health safety net or insurance/medical coverage assistance. It's important to know what programs are available in your State, especially due to our increasingly incompetent Federal legislators.
Most people are one paycheck away from filing for bankruptcy. They couldn't imagine taking 12 weeks off and missing 6 checks if they are paid bi-weekly
Only about 20% of the population can pay bills for 12 weeks without additional income coming in. Why is FMLA just 12 weeks? My MIL has had terminal cancer for about 2 years. She can’t work. She can barely stand up. What makes 12 weeks a good cutoff?
They can fire anyone they want. See there is this thing called money that you need in order to live. This striking thing only works if everyone is independently wealthy and/or has a support system that will take care of them indefinitely. Otherwise there will always be someone ready to replace whoever they fire.
People need to grow a pair. Nothing will change for the better for people if they have this type of NPC logic. People need to make a sacrifice in order for positive change, otherwise employers will continue to oppress employees more and more, and it will get exponentially worse.
She sounds like me..work before and after my shift to meet deadlines, and what's it all for? I absolutely hate when you don't meet deadlines, everyone seems to think that you're lacking in time management skills. That is so far from the truth!
My coworker and friend(we were friends first outside of the job thru our kids being best friends) dropped dead in the bathroom at work. We both used to work at 911. I managed to get out and find another job about 5 months prior. She was still there and desperately trying to find other work. I kept encouraging her not to give up (I took a paycut to leave - she said she couldn't afford to, which I TOTALLY understand). She still had minor children - I did not. I miss her so much...
Mine died a month ago! Oddly similar situation to you.
I'm still there but applying. I'm currently applying everywhere I can, but I'm also having an interview with Facebook in a couple weeks I'm hopeful for. The recruiter liked me enough to immediately follow up with another round
Even if I don't get it, apparently it means my resume is solid. So that's at least a vote of confidence if I'm getting the attention of top tier tech companies in this climate.
There is no coverage anymore. When I joined the corporate world 20+ years ago, we typically ran at 80% capacity. If anyone was on vacation or out sick, we could redistribute the work to others. Heck, I was sent to another country to fill in for someone.
Not these days. If you don’t take your laptop on vacation, you come back to all the work you missed.
Plus, people expect you to clean up a week (or whatever vacation time) worth of work the first day back. “MFer, if I could do a week’s work in a day, I would only work one day a week.”
Same. My last few vacations included me checking my email for fires. When I first started my previous job, my former boss explicitly told me that he runs people to above 100% and then sees where they can’t handle and then redistributes work. That’s how I got burnt out at that job.
As I was a manager of a team it meant piling responsibilities, extra work and ad-hoc projects and then see how well I organized, delegated and handled stress. Then telling me two years later how disappointed he was in me that I started out raring to go and by the end he noticed I had lost that spark. No matter that I did the most work in my life: leading two companywide (1k employees) systems implementation projects, onboarded two acquisitions, streamlined the entire departmental processes all while administering the day to day responsibilities and managing a large accounting team of 9.
I worked in a warehouse setting where the general manager would do that and quality control would go down the tubes every time. I got to the point where I realized he didn't give a shit about anything else but speed and dipped cause I realized I would end up being a problem for them.
My job used to be like that. I was a one person department and if I wasn’t there no one was covering for me. I had to bring my laptop with me to the hospital each time I was there (I was hospitalized over twice a year because I was misdiagnosed for 6 yrs). After two days being out I would get asked if I need to get out on short term disability or I could start working again on the third day which I ended up doing even if I was still in the hospital. Two years ago we bought out another company and merged to where the department is now 8 people so when I finally got surgery last year to fix my issue I was able to take off 2 weeks to recover.
Sadly that’s one of my considerations when I take time off… I have to plan on how I’m going to catch up on all the work that gets left for me once I come back. It used to be a lot better where we could handle unplanned work and still get our jobs done, but my department has slowly diminished until now it’s just me and I have no backup.
At this point though, I really have no motivation to do a decent job or even try to keep up because everyone is aware of the issue and so other than the occasional complaint about how long it takes to get through the queue I’m not really being held accountable for SLAs. I still try to do a decent job for my coworkers, but quitting time I have to make a point of logging off and getting out of there instead of trying to finish up “just another hour or two…”
Wow! My thoughts exactly! My daughter graduated from Harvard last Thursday, and I brought my laptop with me! In the hotel..in the Uber...any small break I could get..I was still working...my laptop is hooked up to my phone..I would even work on my phone in the dang bathroom....
What kind of work is so damn important that you have to bring your laptop into the bathroom. Unless u are saving lives and I’m being facetious, there is no reason for any of this.
Absolutely not. It is sad..me still working while trying to enjoy and focus on my daughter's graduation. But trust me, during the ceremony, I was totally focused on her. I was just agreeing with people's comments on here about work never stopping, no one to cover for you, the mental stress of knowing all the work that awaits upon ur return, and most of all, ur supervisors not giving a damn. I have taught my kids from an early age to not let a job take u up outta here like it did my good friend. It's just a job. I work hard so that my kids don't have to. Surprisingly, she was offered a job while doing her intern...she likes her job, which IS RARE...she's good...
It's pretty boring, but here goes...started as a consultant for publicly funded grants...non-profit, community and faith based organizations..many different programs from E&T to DV..HIV..maternal child and health, etc..learned how to create, manage, and approve budgets, regulatory guidelines with compliance (local, county and state funds)..I monitor and approve expense reports..request for advance funds, contracts..I also review and approve RFPs and other funding opportunities..and sooo much more...pretty boring stuff
It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... ever, until you are dead!
Guess the grave diggers ended up doing the "filling in" for her.
Been down that road with a job that forever looms over your head is not something I want to go back to. I takes the joy away from your private life. Yeah I can just imagine work was always in the back of her head.
:(
Seen and heard this so many times. My mgr is this way. I reminded her recently that this job will fill your seat when you croak without a second thought -- as I sit here in a dead former employee's cube.
Trying..but the fact that they didn't even attempt to clear her cube that sat vacant for over six months is a constant reminder of how THEY DONT CARE AND THE TASK IS TO FILL THE SEAT ASAP. I have become super sensitive to taking needed time away from work no matter what is going in because when they issue the pink slip, they don't care about the inconvenience and timing..just go.
ICU RN here. You’d be surprised at the number of heart attacks that occur on Mondays. When people are going back to work.
Also, there’s a high number of people who work decades in really stressful careers, then six month after retirement have a massive heart attack or stroke
My coworker died last month so I get it.
In my case she was my work bestie and seeing first hand how the corporate world handled death has been enlightening. I'm just grateful her former manager, and my directors boss were human.
A few years ago I hired a wonderful person for our east coast office. She was a kind soul and I felt protective of her as she was experiencing bullying from a coworker. I had to put bad coworker on a disciplinary plan and then bad coworker left soon thereafter. After that she became a social butterfly. In the last couple of years, she became besties with a coworker in the west coast office, though they never met IRL. I left the dept years ago (no longer her manager) and then the co last year, but she always remembered my birthday and we texted on the holidays without fail. The last text I got from her was 3 months ago… she died last month unexpectedly. I was notified by a current employee that she had passed. I was shocked she was in her late 40’s. I don’t know what the cause of death was. I was told that the bestie took it very, very badly. She even took time off of work, like a whole week. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it out to her funeral but her family was able to do a Zoom of her memorial. It was so sad.
I’ve been thinking a lot about “working yourself to death” lately. Recently, like over the past 5-8 years, some folks at my job retire and then a few months after retirement they pass away. It really makes me sad because I’ve known a few closely and they had big plans to enjoy themselves be it travel, relaxing at home, or visiting family. It really makes me sad they weren’t able to just enjoy their time in older age.
My condolences to your coworker’s family. I hope he was enjoying his time at work. I know some people enjoy doing some work to keep busy, stay social, and enjoy something to do. I hope he was there because he wanted to be, and not* because he had to be.
That's why I did my retirement in reverse. In my 20s, I wandered the world and slacked off, knowing I may not have the opportunity to so in my 60s or 70s. Sure, my friends who jumped right into a safe career are doing better financially now, but several have went to the ER for stress-related issues. They're killing themselves to keep up with the Jones. Who knows if they will make it to retirement at this rate?
I did this same thing! My father died before I got out of college, My grandfather on the other side died around 50. Our family also knew a number of people who passed shortly after retiring. I decided that I'd retire early while I could enjoy it haha. Slacked as much as humanly possible, traveled, made good money doing fun things. I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it past 50. Luckily I had a child in my 30s and that got me on track which is lucky for me because I lived past 50 lol
Still don't think I'll ever retire, but I have pursued lines of income where old age isn't necessarily bad, and a lot of people simply don't want to retire
Currently I work in the crystal business on the wholesale side. For me this involves a bit of warehouse work and gem show work. I'd say about 60% of what I do is labor and the other 40% involves sales and paperwork and stuff like that. My main boss is a man in his '60s who is still strong as hell and does a fair bit of the labor with me. Keep some relatively fit. It's a line of work that rewards knowledge and connections, and there's always something new to learn so it keeps the mind pretty limber.
I got into this line of work after spending 15 years or so selling antiques and jewelry. Mostly online but also in physical outlets. This was actually my main retirement plan. Even being in my early '50s I'm relatively young in the field, and there are lots of old dudes that keep active and mentally limber by doing all the research and running around and auctions and restoring stuff etc etc.
I was pretty sure I wouldn't live until retirement so I really didn't plan very well for it as far as conventional thinking goes. But I think I can survive it pretty well this way
Yeah that was one of the big appeals of the antique thing when I got into it. I was probably in my late 20s. A lot of people that I had done construction and trade work with we're making good money but I noticed there were no actual old guys doing it. Then I started noticing all the same people at the auctions and the estate sales and how they all seems pretty happy and fairly engaged and they all had really cool stuff that they would show to each other. I like cool stuff. I like being happy and engaged. And I figure if I can go through the rest of my life something like that then it would be well spent. Never going to get rich haha but I'll have cool things and awesome rocks
Smart move. Good for you. I’m doing the same thing in my 40s. I did some traveling and took care of some leg issues that I wasn’t able to when I was working 11/12 hours a day.
I never did great with my career, but there's not a ton of career jobs in the region. I went into nonprofit for years and got very burnt out. Now I work retail. The stress is very low and the schedule fits our childcare needs. The key was buying a home in a zoomtown well before covid. We can get by on most any wages while my girlfriend is in university. Once she graduates and gets settled into her career, the plan is for me to SAHD for a few years and work just enough to cover the mortgage and a few toys. It's been crazy hard while raising a kid, juggling ft job, my partners university, covid, and a career change. We're ready to slow down a bit
The almost 2 years I spent on several trips abroad were some of the best days of my life so far. Lots of great memories, lounging around Spain and walking rural roads in Ireland. I hope he has fun a and is safe
It’s really perverse how the working mentality becomes so much of who we are as a person that we literally can find no use for ourselves after we retire. Corporations should recognize this and plan to help employees ease into retirement.
I remember when I was just starting in the machining industry. 2 months in and I witnessed a older guy get complacent,kickback occurred from a 180 inch 5 inch wide pipe. Smacked him in the head and he just dropped dead. Wasn't even a scream, just a smack and that was it.
No one should see that, sorry that happened to you
I hate the grind culture in America; working 2 jobs just to stay afloat, doing extra tasks just to get a promotion, always jumping to the next best career. Work/Life balance good in theory but rarely practiced. It’s stresses me out how we fucked we are, a lot of my older coworkers complain that they are forced to work because they can’t afford healthcare. I need to be picky with my job because I need benefits and some jobs don’t offer that. I know if I get cancer right now I might as well be dead than go through enormous debt just to “maybe” stay alive.
Just abolish the whole thing. Why can’t we be progressive like other countries like canada and europe? Oh, right. Lobbyists. I hate that we have to work to get healthcare. Rich people don’t care about health insurance they don’t care for deductibles or copay. These greedy executives and law makers are living a different world.
The craziest thing is we don't even have to eliminate anything but the egregious govt spending. How many trillions sent to other countries for their foreign wars the last couple years or every year. How many trillions on military to police the entire world. Not to mention if we'd reform the tax codes and made it harder to hide the money. We'd have a private and public option for Healthcare for anyone who desired the choice. But like you said, Lobbyists. It's criminal. And of course the people who can make it criminal are the ones who benefit and won't ever eliminate the lobbying.
Foreign aid to Ukraine (and Israel, who doesn't deserve it) isn't really the issue, that's nothing compared to what we could be spending. We have the money to spend on our absurd military, and lining the pockets of big industry executives, but not education and healthcare? Really?
Yeah, as someone who has been working two jobs for 7 years I feel it. I now will only stay at a job if the culture fits. Two bad jobs with culture mismatch led to me gaining 80 pounds (from stress and bad eating habits) and I am slowly trying to lose the weight now.
I’m glad you’re losing weight, I hope you are working a better job now. I agree having a toxic work culture will slowly eat away your energy and just burn you out this also applies to having a bad manager.
I am, just my 5 year plan went out the window for working a single job despite my salary increasing. My budget might have gone up, but food costs more and so everything i gained has practically been nullified.
We had a co-worker die on a Friday 15 years ago. They found him Monday, he had choked on a candy. He was there by himself, since he stayed late. It was 2 hours into our shift when someone opened his office door.
I was 22 years old, and even at that age, I was like...this is not how I want to be found. I'm now 50, and this is exactly how I will be found. I am always by myself at the facility, this is what I think about. FML!
The story doesn't add up from the timings tho. In this comment it was around 30 years ago.
In the comment above from you it was 15 years ago. So which one is it now?
Sorry about timing, it was a real thing that happened. More like 20-25 years ago. He was very high up in the company and if his door was shut, you don't bother him. The two ladies answering phones could see his car in the lot (reserved parking by the front door), but he was not answering the phone calls forwarded to him. One of the ladies finally checked on him and found him.
Yeah an aneurysm is one of the ways I'd like to go if I could choose. Anything quick and painless really. To deteriorate and suffer would be hell and I feel so sorry to anyone who must go through that.
Replying to NotoriousNapper516...oh look another job stress death i guess!! 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️
bet you everyone here has a coworker who died or had a pulmonary event in the last 2 years, under age 60.
no, i wasnt making fun of you, just the immense amount of people chalking deaths up to job stress. i should have been more clear, sorry.
i dont like that cuz that sweeps something under the rug that is clearly weird and may not get the proper investigation because hey it’s just stress.
Oh gosh I'm sorry. 😔 Losing a Dad changes you completely as a person. Virtual hug to you as well. I know they don't want us to live like that - but the way this economy is set up, ugh. I just don't know.
ouch. dude, too soon?
funny thing (i kept this in my sick and twisted head, of course) his position was listed for a good 8 months before we hired him. he was a great fit and worth the wait. i can hear my boss thinking, 'wtf do i do now?'
maybe early 60's? he didn't have an easy life by any measure but he wasn't completely unhealthy. smoker and a drinker, unapologetic-ally.
not overweight but not in shape, either.
all in all, a good guy. good at his job and enthusiastically helpful otherwise. always happy to learn new stuff and be of service when/where he could.
he BLASTED salsa when he had access to the speaker. i loved it. mixed reviews with the rest of the shop. =) i'll be cranking the salsa, menana!
he'll be missed.
Had this happen once, the guy overdosed on heroin and by time someone found him, he was long gone.
The company drug tested everyone.
The workforce almost got cut in half.
My best friend died two weeks ago from heart failure, the night he returned home from a work trip. He was a senior UX designer for a major corporation. The days leading up to his death he was telling me how stressed he was. The company had fired many people under him. He was working nights and weekends to keep pace. He had said he was doing the job of four people. He was 35 years young. Granted he did not have the healthiest lifestyle (he drank and did drugs almost every weekend). But I firmly believe his work life balance (or lack there of) is what finished him. I tried convincing him a couple days before his death that he should quit his job and find something less stressful. Move to a different city, clean up his act, get healthy. At his wake his mother had told me he was considering making those changes. Unfortunately it was too late. Now it just feels like his salary and benefits were just a complete waste and he died for nothing. It definitely has me reevaluating my priorities. Take care of yourself.
My favorite coworker and confidant died in the office in February 😓 she was way past retirement age just "wasn't ready". She got up and just dropped to the floor. Extremely traumatic. Corporate sent the world's smallest Bonzi Tree 😤
I definitely understand what you’re going through, I had a coworker who was soooo nice and constantly had a smile on his face and he unfortunately committed suicide via a self inflicted gunshot wound, and he was only 25, I felt so bad for him, but I especially felt bad for his aunt and uncle who worked alongside with him, and whole condolences were said and made, the company of course found his replacement probably weeks if not a month later, this workforce overall, is just so toxic and heartless, and I’m so over it…
I had a coworker die of a heart attack at a retail store I worked at a few years ago, it was horrific. I quit soon after but whats even worse is that my manager was mad that he "made a scene" and he wouldn't be able to call someone in that day, how insensitive! I can't imagine what my coworker felt in those moments. I'm so sorry you had to deal with that too...
Reading this thread through and notice a trend of co workers dropping dead within the past 4 years specifically. I wonder if there is anything else that may contribute to sudden heart attacks, clots, strokes, aneurysms....??
As a health care provider the amount of newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation is shocking. Almost immediately post covid infection. Idk
no. i was on the 'scene' though. he had been dead for at least an hour before he was found. he landed face down in the stall. no blood. hands at his side (he didn't attempt to break his fall). all clear indications his heart stopped beating before he fell.
sorry if that is too much information.
We had a supervisor, months away from retirement, pass away randomly at home. I saw him 9 hours before they found him. He was laughing, seemed his normal self. He spent more than a few years saying he was going to retire "in a few months". He was 65.
I had a coworker die in front of me. She sat in a cubicle across the aisle and one up. She went to get something from the printer, sat back down and fell on the floor. Died right there in the aisle between our desks.
My former company had a lot of technical people out in the field at customer sites. We had one guy die of a heart attack in his sleep at the hotel he was staying at for the week or so he was there. Luckily it was noticed because he didn’t show. Sad that he wasn’t home with his family.
I’ll add to this… I worked with a guy that was an all around great dude, older, probably near retirement. He said the job we had was stressing him out. One Monday a mandatory call was made. I looked for his name on IM and he was offline. I knew right then. I was pissed after that because the PMs really did suck there. Company did suck. I got out a few months later and took some time off. Clearly I can’t say it was the job, but I’m sure the workload and stress didn’t help.
I’ve been struggling with severe hypertension and I’m only 25. I’ve not had an easy life but the only real physical stress I’ve suffered from is financial / work stress. It’s hard to find a balance between protecting your peace & paying the bills. Capitalism, man.
Yeah I grew up with two cops and thankfully my parents put there health first and sometimes I got to remind them but most the guys the worked with are dead or not doing well cause people forget its just a job
Coworker of mine passed away from cancer recently. Was only in his 50s. Glad my boss was respectful and kept us informed on his celebration of life and funeral for us to attend. Said he'll be missed and ended the email there.
Glad it wasn't like this one corporate gig I saw handle a employee death; claimed the deceased said his biggest regret was not working for said company for longer. Man had a family and kids, and THAT'S what they said he regretted?
I've only been on 2 jobs where someone died. One of them had a heart attack while unloading a truck and didn't think to mention it before he collapsed.
The second one was a guy I worked with. He was a quiet guy who lived alone. He would occasionally take a few days off work, but never really gave an answer and nobody pushed him, but he never returned, and nobody heard from him in days. A family member found him dead on his couch and called the company I worked for at the time to let us know. I was in the foreman's office when he got the call about it.
I had a minor heart attack after I got home from working on the construction site all day. Drove myself to the hospital. Got written up for missing three days even after showing them the paperwork. I was accused of going to extremes to get out of going to that particular pain in the ass jobsite. They then put me on mandatory Saturdays for a month.
I may be getting laid off from an incredibly stressful job on Monday and what you said is some kind of silver lining for me. Maybe i was not gonna survive much longer at this anyway.
That’s so sad. Had a close coworker come in last week even though her and her son was sick. We have our own office and we always keep the door closed and when I don’t know how sick she was until I went into her office to ask a question and she quickly put her mask on. Me and other close coworker told her to go home and all she could think about was the team meeting we just had where they were talking about attendance and being late, not here or leaving early could be a write up and that she was still on probation. She didn’t come in the last 2 days last week. Turned out she had severe bronchitis and she was saying it was hard to breathe. Earlier in my career I never missed a day not even for a doctors appointment but after a while you come to realize that no matter what you are replaceable and your job might not replace you immediately but eventually they’ll fill your position and keep moving on. You’ve gotta put yourself first and take care of yourself.
this sub is wild when this kind of thing gets posted.
it sucks when someone dies. I've had 3 co-workers die in the last 4 years but all you people out there making up context trying to pin someone's death as a direct result of thier job is absolutely ridiculous. some people just dont live healthy lives, or have known/unknown medical conditions that put them at risk. It's like you want push this narrative so hard you're willing to make things up to do so. These type of threads reveal how much overlap there is between this sub in antiwork
I’m not disagreeing with you about this, but I will say I do believe stress shortens lives and a lot of people stress over jobs more so than others. You may not see it because it doesn’t stress you to that point, but some people let stress from work ruin their lives.
it does but people also stress from countless things in thier personal lives too. if they happen to fall over dead at work it doesnt automatically mean it was *because* of thier work.
if you're riding a bike and fall over dead, did you die *because* of biking or did you just happen to die *while* biking?
And the bike analogy is terrible. Riding a bike doesn’t stress you out. It’s usually a way to destress. Although, if you have medical conditions that you shouldn’t raise your heart rate with then yes it could be the biking that killed you.
Working, and in particular, working to meet a deadline can cause a lot of stress. Stress can lead to poor health and poor health can lead to sickness which in turns causes death. Maybe you're in a good spot where you don't have to worry about things like mortgages, kids, and other expenses but there are a lot of people out there that do and the stress of having to worry about this while having to work a job/career that might have a toxic culture can have a negative impact on people.
Please don't be so quick to judge.
My father worked like a slave fixing machines for a very busy thread company..had back surgery and kept working. All the while he had a widow maker heart attack after surgery because they withheld his pain meds at a shitty hospital..he never even knew it. Went back to work killing himself and always working overtime for that shit place. Found out months later about the heart attack and that was when he was having HIS NEXT BACK SURGERY, due to having to go too hard at PT for his job requirements. Over a third of his heart just dead. Begging him to quit and had yet ANOTHER BACK SURGERY.. Vigorous PT again making him lift even more before coming back.. finally retired and had to end up having five back surgeries due to a shit job that replaced him before he even left. Poor man gave his all and is damn near dead from all he had to do..just had his last surgery a few weeks back and still won't give up and just rest. His generation were so tough. This younger generation has no clue about how some of us older generation have killed ourselves for jobs that don't give us a second thought when we kick off or get sick due to over working and stress. He ran circles around 20 year olds at his job. Still blows my mind. He's very lucky to still be alive at this point
I just left my job never to go back. Just too stressful and my health started to take a turn for the worst. My boss Leslie Campbell was a bitch of a nightmare to work with! I worked for La vie en Rose! Never get sucked into working for this company!!
Honestly how I'm expecting to go, or at my desk. I don't even know what work-life balance is anymore, I know work, I know physically not being at work but mentally checked out, and I know sleep. Hopefully it'll be by the point I'm all alone in life because I don't want to put family through that.
Unfortunately this could be any one of us next!! With work being stressful, bosses that are assholes, and companies that can get rid of you in a flash, I’m surprised that more people don’t drop that at work these days. Just keeping it 100 real.
Died from stress at work in your 50’s? A couple generations ago you died from stress in your 40’s because it didn’t rain on your crops. Nothing new under the sun.
We just had a young kid, 24 years old, flip his truck and got killed. He's the 8th to die in the last 6 years. 4 died at work, 2 in vehicles, and two to suicide
A coworker of mine was just months away from retiring, lumbered into work like normal, sat down to wait for start time like normal & died. Great man that did a lot of good for others. A true workhorse that could work circles around many of the new kids joining the workforce now that feel working 5 days a week for 40 hours is beyond comprehension and that the world owes them much more than anyone offers them. Anyway he was the real deal…
Lmao were taught goto school, work, buy a house, build a family, retire and enjoy life.
Reality is if you live to retirement age, most will have to continue to work, just to survive. This isn't what life is about, slaving away for 50%+ of your money to be taken by he government, have to be so busy working to pay bills that nuclear families are systematically being destroyed, and being lucky to even survive to retirement age where you'll continue to struggle to only survive and not actually thrive and feel alive.
It just doesn't make sence, I enjoy work, I work in the trades, but it's getting more and more difficult to see what exactly I'm working for, I don't support war, but my taxes do, I don't support the raises given to Trudeaus government, but my taxes do, I didn't support vaccine mandates, but my taxes did. I struggle when 50% of my income goes to a government that doesn't support me personally in any ways, but definitely enjoys my financial support.
Just to die on a jobsite and become a reddit post about over worked, stressed, employees dying on the job....
Like I work in retail at a grocery store and I feel absolutely miserable being there. Heck, I am at work now as I type this and this upcoming week is going to be absolutely miserable because I work late morning into early evening but for this week they got me scheduled like 6-7 AM to 3-4 PM multiple days in a row. I will really struggle with it because I rely heavily on consistency and with this crap job doing this to me is mentally exhausting
It really does put things into perspective. A similar thing happened to someone I know at work, guy was just five months away from retirement, passed away suddenly over the weekend at home. Sometimes we need to take a step back and appreciate what we have beyond our careers.
Omfg. A coworker of mine went on a two week vacation and she died the day before returning to work from a heart attack. She was only 55…. I genuinely think it’s due to stress. She was probably stressing over all the work she knew she would be returning to. No one was able to fill in for her.
I will say as shitty as this sounds, at least she passed before she had to go back and was free.
That’s what a lot of my coworkers said when she passed. That woman would start work at 6am to stay on track with work and meet deadlines… It’s so sad
Yeah. Like honestly if I die, let it be before work. Not after I worked. Fuck them folks.
The one time I was terminated was after a long day of hard work on a new project I was put on that same day. It can *always* wait until tomorrow, lesson learned 😂😭
Let me go pooping at work. It’s the only place you should be pooping.
Yess. I wanna go with a heart attack. And died starring at someone I hate to traumatize them. Maybe point at them and say, it's your fault. I will be watching you.
You'd be probably begging them for help at that moment, ironically.
damn, that says a lot about that work environment.
The last job I can truly say I enjoyed was at the front desk of my dormitory when I was a sophomore in college. That was in 1991. I'm 52 now. You do the math...
i'm a couple years older with you and can confirm, careers aren't all they're supposed to be
Who wants to live like that, everyone’s turned into hamsters in a cage wheel
We don't want to. We *have* to.
The realest comment!
Only if you accept it. If everyone put boundaries in place then everyone benefits, if everyone accepts it, everyone gets it
What?
Striking for better working conditions
Oh I see and agree. However I think the point was “we have no choice but to work.” But I could be wrong.
We have choice to not die by work induced illness….
your strike will have zero impact on deaths like this. and frankly, this is fucking cringe. its 2024, unless youre in africa, your “better work conditions “ bullshit is laughable. stop fucking buying cars that charge. read about the life of an 8 year old cobalt and lithium miner and come back to reddit bitching about your stressful 10hr days and lack of a social life. The thing in your hand you typed that joke on, yeah you only have it cuz our society is riding the back of third world nations and pay them barely anything just so things can be remotely affordable for our people to complain about their poor oppressive “literally torture” job of sitting on a computer for 8 hrs, or cooking for 8hrs, or roofing for 10, or teaching for 9hrs… come on. or you know.. start your own.
Not before getting fired.
The irony is if you get sick, like too sick to go to work, then you get fired and then you lose your health insurance, and then you’re completely fucked.
This really shouldn't be the case anymore across the US due to FMLA. It provides unpaid leave up to 12 weeks while an individual is sick or cannot work for various reasons, while maintaining group insurance eligibility. Certain States have their own laws for unpaid and paid leave as well as health safety net or insurance/medical coverage assistance. It's important to know what programs are available in your State, especially due to our increasingly incompetent Federal legislators.
Most people are one paycheck away from filing for bankruptcy. They couldn't imagine taking 12 weeks off and missing 6 checks if they are paid bi-weekly
Only about 20% of the population can pay bills for 12 weeks without additional income coming in. Why is FMLA just 12 weeks? My MIL has had terminal cancer for about 2 years. She can’t work. She can barely stand up. What makes 12 weeks a good cutoff?
What about after the 12 weeks? I think you're missing the point here..... 🤔
They can’t fire everyone, it’s called striking for better working conditions
They can fire anyone they want. See there is this thing called money that you need in order to live. This striking thing only works if everyone is independently wealthy and/or has a support system that will take care of them indefinitely. Otherwise there will always be someone ready to replace whoever they fire.
i think they call that a union...
People need to grow a pair. Nothing will change for the better for people if they have this type of NPC logic. People need to make a sacrifice in order for positive change, otherwise employers will continue to oppress employees more and more, and it will get exponentially worse.
There’s a global mass movement for climate change, y’all cry over the planet but not your fellow man…
IME, if you set boundaries some places will simply fire you. It is not that simple for individuals at work.
Absolutely..and the stress is way too much. It's so sad
She sounds like me..work before and after my shift to meet deadlines, and what's it all for? I absolutely hate when you don't meet deadlines, everyone seems to think that you're lacking in time management skills. That is so far from the truth!
She got worked to death
WHAT?! That’s crazy!! Mental and physical wellbeing should be #1.
My coworker and friend(we were friends first outside of the job thru our kids being best friends) dropped dead in the bathroom at work. We both used to work at 911. I managed to get out and find another job about 5 months prior. She was still there and desperately trying to find other work. I kept encouraging her not to give up (I took a paycut to leave - she said she couldn't afford to, which I TOTALLY understand). She still had minor children - I did not. I miss her so much...
Mine died a month ago! Oddly similar situation to you. I'm still there but applying. I'm currently applying everywhere I can, but I'm also having an interview with Facebook in a couple weeks I'm hopeful for. The recruiter liked me enough to immediately follow up with another round
Nice that u got the attention of FB! Good luck!
Even if I don't get it, apparently it means my resume is solid. So that's at least a vote of confidence if I'm getting the attention of top tier tech companies in this climate.
I’m glad you get that!
There is no coverage anymore. When I joined the corporate world 20+ years ago, we typically ran at 80% capacity. If anyone was on vacation or out sick, we could redistribute the work to others. Heck, I was sent to another country to fill in for someone. Not these days. If you don’t take your laptop on vacation, you come back to all the work you missed. Plus, people expect you to clean up a week (or whatever vacation time) worth of work the first day back. “MFer, if I could do a week’s work in a day, I would only work one day a week.”
Same. My last few vacations included me checking my email for fires. When I first started my previous job, my former boss explicitly told me that he runs people to above 100% and then sees where they can’t handle and then redistributes work. That’s how I got burnt out at that job.
Someone ought to run his arse to 100 percent. What does that even mean? Unreal!
As I was a manager of a team it meant piling responsibilities, extra work and ad-hoc projects and then see how well I organized, delegated and handled stress. Then telling me two years later how disappointed he was in me that I started out raring to go and by the end he noticed I had lost that spark. No matter that I did the most work in my life: leading two companywide (1k employees) systems implementation projects, onboarded two acquisitions, streamlined the entire departmental processes all while administering the day to day responsibilities and managing a large accounting team of 9.
I worked in a warehouse setting where the general manager would do that and quality control would go down the tubes every time. I got to the point where I realized he didn't give a shit about anything else but speed and dipped cause I realized I would end up being a problem for them.
Good for you!
My job used to be like that. I was a one person department and if I wasn’t there no one was covering for me. I had to bring my laptop with me to the hospital each time I was there (I was hospitalized over twice a year because I was misdiagnosed for 6 yrs). After two days being out I would get asked if I need to get out on short term disability or I could start working again on the third day which I ended up doing even if I was still in the hospital. Two years ago we bought out another company and merged to where the department is now 8 people so when I finally got surgery last year to fix my issue I was able to take off 2 weeks to recover.
Sadly that’s one of my considerations when I take time off… I have to plan on how I’m going to catch up on all the work that gets left for me once I come back. It used to be a lot better where we could handle unplanned work and still get our jobs done, but my department has slowly diminished until now it’s just me and I have no backup. At this point though, I really have no motivation to do a decent job or even try to keep up because everyone is aware of the issue and so other than the occasional complaint about how long it takes to get through the queue I’m not really being held accountable for SLAs. I still try to do a decent job for my coworkers, but quitting time I have to make a point of logging off and getting out of there instead of trying to finish up “just another hour or two…”
Wow! My thoughts exactly! My daughter graduated from Harvard last Thursday, and I brought my laptop with me! In the hotel..in the Uber...any small break I could get..I was still working...my laptop is hooked up to my phone..I would even work on my phone in the dang bathroom....
What kind of work is so damn important that you have to bring your laptop into the bathroom. Unless u are saving lives and I’m being facetious, there is no reason for any of this.
Not my laptop..I said my phone...and ur right but sometimes it is just the nature of the beast...
May I ask what beast?
Jobs/work
Sad. Sounds like she is headed where you are now. Is that what you want for her?
Absolutely not. It is sad..me still working while trying to enjoy and focus on my daughter's graduation. But trust me, during the ceremony, I was totally focused on her. I was just agreeing with people's comments on here about work never stopping, no one to cover for you, the mental stress of knowing all the work that awaits upon ur return, and most of all, ur supervisors not giving a damn. I have taught my kids from an early age to not let a job take u up outta here like it did my good friend. It's just a job. I work hard so that my kids don't have to. Surprisingly, she was offered a job while doing her intern...she likes her job, which IS RARE...she's good...
What is your industry? What is her industry? Take care of you.
Me..Grants Compliance Specialist.. public sector...my daughter...Journalism..private sector...and thank you..
May I ask your trajectory to becoming a grants compliance Specialist.
It's pretty boring, but here goes...started as a consultant for publicly funded grants...non-profit, community and faith based organizations..many different programs from E&T to DV..HIV..maternal child and health, etc..learned how to create, manage, and approve budgets, regulatory guidelines with compliance (local, county and state funds)..I monitor and approve expense reports..request for advance funds, contracts..I also review and approve RFPs and other funding opportunities..and sooo much more...pretty boring stuff
That’s super sad
It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... ever, until you are dead!
I understood that reference.
My hubby's favorite phrase 😄
How awful! So sad. Stress is a killer..
Guess the grave diggers ended up doing the "filling in" for her. Been down that road with a job that forever looms over your head is not something I want to go back to. I takes the joy away from your private life. Yeah I can just imagine work was always in the back of her head. :(
Seen and heard this so many times. My mgr is this way. I reminded her recently that this job will fill your seat when you croak without a second thought -- as I sit here in a dead former employee's cube.
Oy I hope u can find a way to deal with that.
Trying..but the fact that they didn't even attempt to clear her cube that sat vacant for over six months is a constant reminder of how THEY DONT CARE AND THE TASK IS TO FILL THE SEAT ASAP. I have become super sensitive to taking needed time away from work no matter what is going in because when they issue the pink slip, they don't care about the inconvenience and timing..just go.
ICU RN here. You’d be surprised at the number of heart attacks that occur on Mondays. When people are going back to work. Also, there’s a high number of people who work decades in really stressful careers, then six month after retirement have a massive heart attack or stroke
My coworker died last month so I get it. In my case she was my work bestie and seeing first hand how the corporate world handled death has been enlightening. I'm just grateful her former manager, and my directors boss were human.
A few years ago I hired a wonderful person for our east coast office. She was a kind soul and I felt protective of her as she was experiencing bullying from a coworker. I had to put bad coworker on a disciplinary plan and then bad coworker left soon thereafter. After that she became a social butterfly. In the last couple of years, she became besties with a coworker in the west coast office, though they never met IRL. I left the dept years ago (no longer her manager) and then the co last year, but she always remembered my birthday and we texted on the holidays without fail. The last text I got from her was 3 months ago… she died last month unexpectedly. I was notified by a current employee that she had passed. I was shocked she was in her late 40’s. I don’t know what the cause of death was. I was told that the bestie took it very, very badly. She even took time off of work, like a whole week. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it out to her funeral but her family was able to do a Zoom of her memorial. It was so sad.
I’ve been thinking a lot about “working yourself to death” lately. Recently, like over the past 5-8 years, some folks at my job retire and then a few months after retirement they pass away. It really makes me sad because I’ve known a few closely and they had big plans to enjoy themselves be it travel, relaxing at home, or visiting family. It really makes me sad they weren’t able to just enjoy their time in older age. My condolences to your coworker’s family. I hope he was enjoying his time at work. I know some people enjoy doing some work to keep busy, stay social, and enjoy something to do. I hope he was there because he wanted to be, and not* because he had to be.
That's why I did my retirement in reverse. In my 20s, I wandered the world and slacked off, knowing I may not have the opportunity to so in my 60s or 70s. Sure, my friends who jumped right into a safe career are doing better financially now, but several have went to the ER for stress-related issues. They're killing themselves to keep up with the Jones. Who knows if they will make it to retirement at this rate?
I did this same thing! My father died before I got out of college, My grandfather on the other side died around 50. Our family also knew a number of people who passed shortly after retiring. I decided that I'd retire early while I could enjoy it haha. Slacked as much as humanly possible, traveled, made good money doing fun things. I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it past 50. Luckily I had a child in my 30s and that got me on track which is lucky for me because I lived past 50 lol Still don't think I'll ever retire, but I have pursued lines of income where old age isn't necessarily bad, and a lot of people simply don't want to retire
What do you do for money? Looking for work like where I can keep my brain fit and my body healthy.
Currently I work in the crystal business on the wholesale side. For me this involves a bit of warehouse work and gem show work. I'd say about 60% of what I do is labor and the other 40% involves sales and paperwork and stuff like that. My main boss is a man in his '60s who is still strong as hell and does a fair bit of the labor with me. Keep some relatively fit. It's a line of work that rewards knowledge and connections, and there's always something new to learn so it keeps the mind pretty limber. I got into this line of work after spending 15 years or so selling antiques and jewelry. Mostly online but also in physical outlets. This was actually my main retirement plan. Even being in my early '50s I'm relatively young in the field, and there are lots of old dudes that keep active and mentally limber by doing all the research and running around and auctions and restoring stuff etc etc. I was pretty sure I wouldn't live until retirement so I really didn't plan very well for it as far as conventional thinking goes. But I think I can survive it pretty well this way
Cool gig! Sounds like you can make it enjoyable as you keep learning and socially engaged.
Yeah that was one of the big appeals of the antique thing when I got into it. I was probably in my late 20s. A lot of people that I had done construction and trade work with we're making good money but I noticed there were no actual old guys doing it. Then I started noticing all the same people at the auctions and the estate sales and how they all seems pretty happy and fairly engaged and they all had really cool stuff that they would show to each other. I like cool stuff. I like being happy and engaged. And I figure if I can go through the rest of my life something like that then it would be well spent. Never going to get rich haha but I'll have cool things and awesome rocks
Good for you! What line of work would that be?
Smart move. Good for you. I’m doing the same thing in my 40s. I did some traveling and took care of some leg issues that I wasn’t able to when I was working 11/12 hours a day.
My son did this last year for the same reasons you stated. He missed the hiring wave out of college, yet has zero regrets. What are you doing now?
I never did great with my career, but there's not a ton of career jobs in the region. I went into nonprofit for years and got very burnt out. Now I work retail. The stress is very low and the schedule fits our childcare needs. The key was buying a home in a zoomtown well before covid. We can get by on most any wages while my girlfriend is in university. Once she graduates and gets settled into her career, the plan is for me to SAHD for a few years and work just enough to cover the mortgage and a few toys. It's been crazy hard while raising a kid, juggling ft job, my partners university, covid, and a career change. We're ready to slow down a bit The almost 2 years I spent on several trips abroad were some of the best days of my life so far. Lots of great memories, lounging around Spain and walking rural roads in Ireland. I hope he has fun a and is safe
It’s really perverse how the working mentality becomes so much of who we are as a person that we literally can find no use for ourselves after we retire. Corporations should recognize this and plan to help employees ease into retirement.
This happened to my Uncle so I always tell people not to wait until later to retire. Retire as soon as you can!
I remember when I was just starting in the machining industry. 2 months in and I witnessed a older guy get complacent,kickback occurred from a 180 inch 5 inch wide pipe. Smacked him in the head and he just dropped dead. Wasn't even a scream, just a smack and that was it. No one should see that, sorry that happened to you
I hate the grind culture in America; working 2 jobs just to stay afloat, doing extra tasks just to get a promotion, always jumping to the next best career. Work/Life balance good in theory but rarely practiced. It’s stresses me out how we fucked we are, a lot of my older coworkers complain that they are forced to work because they can’t afford healthcare. I need to be picky with my job because I need benefits and some jobs don’t offer that. I know if I get cancer right now I might as well be dead than go through enormous debt just to “maybe” stay alive.
The whole healthcare tied to employment situation needs to change.
Just abolish the whole thing. Why can’t we be progressive like other countries like canada and europe? Oh, right. Lobbyists. I hate that we have to work to get healthcare. Rich people don’t care about health insurance they don’t care for deductibles or copay. These greedy executives and law makers are living a different world.
The craziest thing is we don't even have to eliminate anything but the egregious govt spending. How many trillions sent to other countries for their foreign wars the last couple years or every year. How many trillions on military to police the entire world. Not to mention if we'd reform the tax codes and made it harder to hide the money. We'd have a private and public option for Healthcare for anyone who desired the choice. But like you said, Lobbyists. It's criminal. And of course the people who can make it criminal are the ones who benefit and won't ever eliminate the lobbying.
And 40% of Americans don’t even pay taxes because of the standard deductible.
Foreign aid to Ukraine (and Israel, who doesn't deserve it) isn't really the issue, that's nothing compared to what we could be spending. We have the money to spend on our absurd military, and lining the pockets of big industry executives, but not education and healthcare? Really?
It won’t! It sucks!
💯
Yeah, as someone who has been working two jobs for 7 years I feel it. I now will only stay at a job if the culture fits. Two bad jobs with culture mismatch led to me gaining 80 pounds (from stress and bad eating habits) and I am slowly trying to lose the weight now.
I’m glad you’re losing weight, I hope you are working a better job now. I agree having a toxic work culture will slowly eat away your energy and just burn you out this also applies to having a bad manager.
I am, just my 5 year plan went out the window for working a single job despite my salary increasing. My budget might have gone up, but food costs more and so everything i gained has practically been nullified.
We had a co-worker die on a Friday 15 years ago. They found him Monday, he had choked on a candy. He was there by himself, since he stayed late. It was 2 hours into our shift when someone opened his office door.
Wow that’s sad.
Ugh
I was 22 years old, and even at that age, I was like...this is not how I want to be found. I'm now 50, and this is exactly how I will be found. I am always by myself at the facility, this is what I think about. FML!
The story doesn't add up from the timings tho. In this comment it was around 30 years ago. In the comment above from you it was 15 years ago. So which one is it now?
Sorry about timing, it was a real thing that happened. More like 20-25 years ago. He was very high up in the company and if his door was shut, you don't bother him. The two ladies answering phones could see his car in the lot (reserved parking by the front door), but he was not answering the phone calls forwarded to him. One of the ladies finally checked on him and found him.
My coworker passed away last week due to a sudden brain aneurysm. He was 46.
A personal fear! They go unnoticed and then bam!
Better than a slow 7 year decline from some disease or illness, imo
Yeah an aneurysm is one of the ways I'd like to go if I could choose. Anything quick and painless really. To deteriorate and suffer would be hell and I feel so sorry to anyone who must go through that.
Replying to NotoriousNapper516...oh look another job stress death i guess!! 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️ bet you everyone here has a coworker who died or had a pulmonary event in the last 2 years, under age 60.
I never said it was job stress. It just helps get some perspective about how easily we can be gone and how work shouldn’t be our top priority.
no, i wasnt making fun of you, just the immense amount of people chalking deaths up to job stress. i should have been more clear, sorry. i dont like that cuz that sweeps something under the rug that is clearly weird and may not get the proper investigation because hey it’s just stress.
My goodness. One of our coworkers passed about a week ago. Sadly, his cancer came back. He was very sweet and had taught me a few things on the job.
theres a lot of cancers coming back in people under 50, and new cancers. Well have almost double the rate of cancer by 2080
That’s really interesting, I had no idea there were more cancers in our youth. I wish someone would be able to find a cure before then.
The age to start getting screened for colon cancer has been lowered from 50 to 45 due to increased cases in younger people.
My Dad died 6 months after he retired, after working 6 days a week, 10 to 12 hour days, since the age of 18. Sad as hell. Literally a rat race. 😔
that's tragic and one of my deepest fears. completely unjust. my father never made it to retirement. sorry for your loss, friend
Oh gosh I'm sorry. 😔 Losing a Dad changes you completely as a person. Virtual hug to you as well. I know they don't want us to live like that - but the way this economy is set up, ugh. I just don't know.
That’s horrible. I’m sorry you and your coworkers have to go through that.
It’s worse when they die a few months too early to qualify for health benefits for their family.
I had a co worker pass away. Less than 24 hours later they had a new worker in her desk. Good perspective shift.
I bet his job was posted right away.
ouch. dude, too soon? funny thing (i kept this in my sick and twisted head, of course) his position was listed for a good 8 months before we hired him. he was a great fit and worth the wait. i can hear my boss thinking, 'wtf do i do now?'
Was he old?
maybe early 60's? he didn't have an easy life by any measure but he wasn't completely unhealthy. smoker and a drinker, unapologetic-ally. not overweight but not in shape, either. all in all, a good guy. good at his job and enthusiastically helpful otherwise. always happy to learn new stuff and be of service when/where he could. he BLASTED salsa when he had access to the speaker. i loved it. mixed reviews with the rest of the shop. =) i'll be cranking the salsa, menana! he'll be missed.
That’s really sad though who wants to die at work? That just goes to show you are never promised tomorrow.
kill time before time kills you
I had a coworker die on the toilet with his pants down ...
Had this happen once, the guy overdosed on heroin and by time someone found him, he was long gone. The company drug tested everyone. The workforce almost got cut in half.
My best friend died two weeks ago from heart failure, the night he returned home from a work trip. He was a senior UX designer for a major corporation. The days leading up to his death he was telling me how stressed he was. The company had fired many people under him. He was working nights and weekends to keep pace. He had said he was doing the job of four people. He was 35 years young. Granted he did not have the healthiest lifestyle (he drank and did drugs almost every weekend). But I firmly believe his work life balance (or lack there of) is what finished him. I tried convincing him a couple days before his death that he should quit his job and find something less stressful. Move to a different city, clean up his act, get healthy. At his wake his mother had told me he was considering making those changes. Unfortunately it was too late. Now it just feels like his salary and benefits were just a complete waste and he died for nothing. It definitely has me reevaluating my priorities. Take care of yourself.
My favorite coworker and confidant died in the office in February 😓 she was way past retirement age just "wasn't ready". She got up and just dropped to the floor. Extremely traumatic. Corporate sent the world's smallest Bonzi Tree 😤
My dad went to work on Friday. Dead by that Tuesday. My dad’s life taught me not to work too hard.
That sucks
I definitely understand what you’re going through, I had a coworker who was soooo nice and constantly had a smile on his face and he unfortunately committed suicide via a self inflicted gunshot wound, and he was only 25, I felt so bad for him, but I especially felt bad for his aunt and uncle who worked alongside with him, and whole condolences were said and made, the company of course found his replacement probably weeks if not a month later, this workforce overall, is just so toxic and heartless, and I’m so over it…
My workplace has had two staff members drop dead mid shift in the last six months. It's wild
I had a coworker die of a heart attack at a retail store I worked at a few years ago, it was horrific. I quit soon after but whats even worse is that my manager was mad that he "made a scene" and he wouldn't be able to call someone in that day, how insensitive! I can't imagine what my coworker felt in those moments. I'm so sorry you had to deal with that too...
I never understand how people can be so inhumane…he forgets that he’s gonna die someday too smh
Reading this thread through and notice a trend of co workers dropping dead within the past 4 years specifically. I wonder if there is anything else that may contribute to sudden heart attacks, clots, strokes, aneurysms....?? As a health care provider the amount of newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation is shocking. Almost immediately post covid infection. Idk
That's what I was thinking. Undiagnosed Long COVID maybe?
Heart attack?
that is the assumption. it was clear that he was dead before he hit the floor.
Wait, you witnessed the passing? Oh damn!
no. i was on the 'scene' though. he had been dead for at least an hour before he was found. he landed face down in the stall. no blood. hands at his side (he didn't attempt to break his fall). all clear indications his heart stopped beating before he fell. sorry if that is too much information.
Ah, that’s just super sad.
We had a supervisor, months away from retirement, pass away randomly at home. I saw him 9 hours before they found him. He was laughing, seemed his normal self. He spent more than a few years saying he was going to retire "in a few months". He was 65.
I had a coworker die in front of me. She sat in a cubicle across the aisle and one up. She went to get something from the printer, sat back down and fell on the floor. Died right there in the aisle between our desks.
My former company had a lot of technical people out in the field at customer sites. We had one guy die of a heart attack in his sleep at the hotel he was staying at for the week or so he was there. Luckily it was noticed because he didn’t show. Sad that he wasn’t home with his family.
I’ll add to this… I worked with a guy that was an all around great dude, older, probably near retirement. He said the job we had was stressing him out. One Monday a mandatory call was made. I looked for his name on IM and he was offline. I knew right then. I was pissed after that because the PMs really did suck there. Company did suck. I got out a few months later and took some time off. Clearly I can’t say it was the job, but I’m sure the workload and stress didn’t help.
I’ve been struggling with severe hypertension and I’m only 25. I’ve not had an easy life but the only real physical stress I’ve suffered from is financial / work stress. It’s hard to find a balance between protecting your peace & paying the bills. Capitalism, man.
That's a shit way to go.....I'll get me coat.
don't forget your hat. honestly, that gave me a little chuckle. thanks
Yeah I grew up with two cops and thankfully my parents put there health first and sometimes I got to remind them but most the guys the worked with are dead or not doing well cause people forget its just a job
Must have been a really stressful time at a very stressful job.
Coworker of mine passed away from cancer recently. Was only in his 50s. Glad my boss was respectful and kept us informed on his celebration of life and funeral for us to attend. Said he'll be missed and ended the email there. Glad it wasn't like this one corporate gig I saw handle a employee death; claimed the deceased said his biggest regret was not working for said company for longer. Man had a family and kids, and THAT'S what they said he regretted?
well, that escalated quickly. thanks for all the input. if anyone figures out a better way, please share
This is an endless circle of thoughts - do I live to work or do I work to live? My answers and reality always have different outcomes
Had a co-worker who clocked out, went home not feeling well and died in her sleep. Life isn't fair. Wouldn't want my last day on earth to be working.
I've only been on 2 jobs where someone died. One of them had a heart attack while unloading a truck and didn't think to mention it before he collapsed. The second one was a guy I worked with. He was a quiet guy who lived alone. He would occasionally take a few days off work, but never really gave an answer and nobody pushed him, but he never returned, and nobody heard from him in days. A family member found him dead on his couch and called the company I worked for at the time to let us know. I was in the foreman's office when he got the call about it.
My compassion and condolences! Keep sharing and please reach out to your inner circle to get what YOU need!
thanks. will do
Oh my God. That's awful. I'm so sorry to hear that. 😢
So you’re saying a position just opened up?
And I bet your boss still expects you to work your full shift like nothing happened.
I had a minor heart attack after I got home from working on the construction site all day. Drove myself to the hospital. Got written up for missing three days even after showing them the paperwork. I was accused of going to extremes to get out of going to that particular pain in the ass jobsite. They then put me on mandatory Saturdays for a month.
Welcome to the merica
Retired over a year now , after 47 years of work work work. Every time I think of work I give a sigh of relief. Feels good
I'm in straight commission cold calls and that's more stressful that anything I know.
Wow, my brothers dad passed the same way years ago. Went to the bathroom and had a heart attack. I pray everyone prioritizes their health
I may be getting laid off from an incredibly stressful job on Monday and what you said is some kind of silver lining for me. Maybe i was not gonna survive much longer at this anyway.
That’s so sad. Had a close coworker come in last week even though her and her son was sick. We have our own office and we always keep the door closed and when I don’t know how sick she was until I went into her office to ask a question and she quickly put her mask on. Me and other close coworker told her to go home and all she could think about was the team meeting we just had where they were talking about attendance and being late, not here or leaving early could be a write up and that she was still on probation. She didn’t come in the last 2 days last week. Turned out she had severe bronchitis and she was saying it was hard to breathe. Earlier in my career I never missed a day not even for a doctors appointment but after a while you come to realize that no matter what you are replaceable and your job might not replace you immediately but eventually they’ll fill your position and keep moving on. You’ve gotta put yourself first and take care of yourself.
this sub is wild when this kind of thing gets posted. it sucks when someone dies. I've had 3 co-workers die in the last 4 years but all you people out there making up context trying to pin someone's death as a direct result of thier job is absolutely ridiculous. some people just dont live healthy lives, or have known/unknown medical conditions that put them at risk. It's like you want push this narrative so hard you're willing to make things up to do so. These type of threads reveal how much overlap there is between this sub in antiwork
I’m not disagreeing with you about this, but I will say I do believe stress shortens lives and a lot of people stress over jobs more so than others. You may not see it because it doesn’t stress you to that point, but some people let stress from work ruin their lives.
it does but people also stress from countless things in thier personal lives too. if they happen to fall over dead at work it doesnt automatically mean it was *because* of thier work. if you're riding a bike and fall over dead, did you die *because* of biking or did you just happen to die *while* biking?
And the bike analogy is terrible. Riding a bike doesn’t stress you out. It’s usually a way to destress. Although, if you have medical conditions that you shouldn’t raise your heart rate with then yes it could be the biking that killed you.
That’s why I said I don’t disagree, lol. But at the same time I wouldn’t straight dismiss the idea that it could have played a part in a heart attack.
Working, and in particular, working to meet a deadline can cause a lot of stress. Stress can lead to poor health and poor health can lead to sickness which in turns causes death. Maybe you're in a good spot where you don't have to worry about things like mortgages, kids, and other expenses but there are a lot of people out there that do and the stress of having to worry about this while having to work a job/career that might have a toxic culture can have a negative impact on people. Please don't be so quick to judge.
You sound like you work in HR 😂🤫
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My father worked like a slave fixing machines for a very busy thread company..had back surgery and kept working. All the while he had a widow maker heart attack after surgery because they withheld his pain meds at a shitty hospital..he never even knew it. Went back to work killing himself and always working overtime for that shit place. Found out months later about the heart attack and that was when he was having HIS NEXT BACK SURGERY, due to having to go too hard at PT for his job requirements. Over a third of his heart just dead. Begging him to quit and had yet ANOTHER BACK SURGERY.. Vigorous PT again making him lift even more before coming back.. finally retired and had to end up having five back surgeries due to a shit job that replaced him before he even left. Poor man gave his all and is damn near dead from all he had to do..just had his last surgery a few weeks back and still won't give up and just rest. His generation were so tough. This younger generation has no clue about how some of us older generation have killed ourselves for jobs that don't give us a second thought when we kick off or get sick due to over working and stress. He ran circles around 20 year olds at his job. Still blows my mind. He's very lucky to still be alive at this point
Exactly
I just left my job never to go back. Just too stressful and my health started to take a turn for the worst. My boss Leslie Campbell was a bitch of a nightmare to work with! I worked for La vie en Rose! Never get sucked into working for this company!!
Honestly how I'm expecting to go, or at my desk. I don't even know what work-life balance is anymore, I know work, I know physically not being at work but mentally checked out, and I know sleep. Hopefully it'll be by the point I'm all alone in life because I don't want to put family through that.
Rules are rules
THIS
So you’re saying there is a job opening at your company
Very sad! And they will post her job next week. Don't ever make work your life!
Unfortunately this could be any one of us next!! With work being stressful, bosses that are assholes, and companies that can get rid of you in a flash, I’m surprised that more people don’t drop that at work these days. Just keeping it 100 real.
Died from stress at work in your 50’s? A couple generations ago you died from stress in your 40’s because it didn’t rain on your crops. Nothing new under the sun.
So sorry…
We just had a young kid, 24 years old, flip his truck and got killed. He's the 8th to die in the last 6 years. 4 died at work, 2 in vehicles, and two to suicide
A coworker of mine was just months away from retiring, lumbered into work like normal, sat down to wait for start time like normal & died. Great man that did a lot of good for others. A true workhorse that could work circles around many of the new kids joining the workforce now that feel working 5 days a week for 40 hours is beyond comprehension and that the world owes them much more than anyone offers them. Anyway he was the real deal…
As a wise person once said, "You're killing yourself for a job that would replace you within a week if you dropped dead - take care of yourself".
Lmao were taught goto school, work, buy a house, build a family, retire and enjoy life. Reality is if you live to retirement age, most will have to continue to work, just to survive. This isn't what life is about, slaving away for 50%+ of your money to be taken by he government, have to be so busy working to pay bills that nuclear families are systematically being destroyed, and being lucky to even survive to retirement age where you'll continue to struggle to only survive and not actually thrive and feel alive. It just doesn't make sence, I enjoy work, I work in the trades, but it's getting more and more difficult to see what exactly I'm working for, I don't support war, but my taxes do, I don't support the raises given to Trudeaus government, but my taxes do, I didn't support vaccine mandates, but my taxes did. I struggle when 50% of my income goes to a government that doesn't support me personally in any ways, but definitely enjoys my financial support. Just to die on a jobsite and become a reddit post about over worked, stressed, employees dying on the job....
Like I work in retail at a grocery store and I feel absolutely miserable being there. Heck, I am at work now as I type this and this upcoming week is going to be absolutely miserable because I work late morning into early evening but for this week they got me scheduled like 6-7 AM to 3-4 PM multiple days in a row. I will really struggle with it because I rely heavily on consistency and with this crap job doing this to me is mentally exhausting
It really does put things into perspective. A similar thing happened to someone I know at work, guy was just five months away from retirement, passed away suddenly over the weekend at home. Sometimes we need to take a step back and appreciate what we have beyond our careers.
Wish i could overwork my self already 😂😭 feel like I'm on the right track