Office worker found dead at desk, probably died 4 days earlier

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A Well Fargo office employee was found dead at desk 4 days after she came into the building. Initial estimates say she passed the day she came in which was a Friday and found dead the following Tuesday. Other employees assumed the smell was a plumbing issue. First responders finally called and found her.
No early signs of foul play

Wells Fargo staffer found dead in cubicle after foul odor complaints — 4 days after scanning into work

I get people go through their daily life preoccupied but some are blissfully ignorant purposely ignoring things. Some believe they would never be involved in a situation like this in someway. But Wells Fargo or building security blew this one. In the day and age of terrorism a big company should at least have a walk thru of their buildings several times a day along with not blowing off odors that could've been part of a chemical attack.
 

Yeah. I read this and thought, yikes!

The number of times myself, and others I've known, have pulled late late nights, or even in some cases for myself I slept under my desk in order to meet deadlines..... What a terrible story, and a terrible indictment on society today.
 
I wonder how their cubicles were set up. I also wonder...didn't she have family or friends or even co-workers that would wonder why they hadn't seen her, including her supervisor. And lastly, I wonder if the security guard(s) got fired. 🤔 It's a sad story. I bet being in that office elicits a creepy feeling among her co-workers.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I also wonder...didn't she have family or friends or even co-workers that would wonder why they hadn't seen her, including her supervisor.
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This is the first thing that I thought of, too. I absolutely know about being a workaholic... I was one in the late 70s/early 80s, but never so much that friends and family didn't know where I was at any given time.. I wouldn't have been able to disappear for even a couple of hours without someone wondering if I was okay. That makes this story even sadder, doesn't it? :cry:
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I wonder how their cubicles were set up. I also wonder...didn't she have family or friends or even co-workers that would wonder why they hadn't seen her, including her supervisor. And lastly, I wonder if the security guard(s) got fired. 🤔 It's a sad story. I bet being in that office elicits a creepy feeling among her co-workers.
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I saw this story. She was up on the 3rd or 4th floor, in an area that got very little foot traffic.

I think a good security measure in a huge building like that would be to install a computer program that alerts security when a specific computer is left on after hours, and a security person would have to go find out why.

That would be way more efficient than walk-throughs.
 
Murrmurr said:
I saw this story. She was up on the 3rd or 4th floor, in an area that got very little foot traffic.

I think a good security measure in a huge building like that would be to install a computer program that alerts security when a specific computer is left on after hours, and a security person would have to go find out why.

That would be way more efficient than walk-throughs.
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A long time ago in the 80's I was a patrol supervisor for a Toronto area security company that had many contracts to supply uniform security guards at both commercial buildings and industrial factories. As the road supervisor, part of my job was to physically check the guards, to be sure they were awake at night, and making their rounds properly. One of our contracts was at the head office of the Molson's brewery company. At that location there were 3 guards. One at the truck entrance gate, one rover in the brewery building, and a third in the 5 story office tower.

One night I found the guard assigned to the office building sleeping in one of the executive offices, with his shoes off, on the sofa of the sales manager. I took his shoes. At the end of their shift, at 6 AM, I came back and asked him where his shoes were ? He couldn't explain where the shoes had gone. He was fired on the spot for cause. My point ? One of that guard's assignments was to check every office to be sure that the lights were turned off. They weren't. He wasn't doing even the minimum amount of the effort required of him. JIMB.
 
jimintoronto said:
A long time ago in the 80's I was a patrol supervisor for a Toronto area security company that had many contracts to supply uniform security guards at both commercial buildings and industrial factories. As the road supervisor, part of my job was to physically check the guards, to be sure they were awake at night, and making their rounds properly. One of our contracts was at the head office of the Molson's brewery company. At that location there were 3 guards. One at the truck entrance gate, one rover in the brewery building, and a third in the 5 story office tower.

One night I found the guard assigned to the office building sleeping in one of the executive offices, with his shoes off, on the sofa of the sales manager. I took his shoes. At the end of their shift, at 6 AM, I came back and asked him where his shoes were ? He couldn't explain where the shoes had gone. He was fired on the spot for cause. My point ? One of that guard's assignments was to check every office to be sure that the lights were turned off. They weren't. He wasn't doing even the minimum amount of the effort required of him. JIMB.
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Yes, that kind of thing happens. All too often. Security software would be way more reliable than fallible humans.

You make a good point - this software (that I'm imagining) should not only check that all computers in the building are turned off, but lights, too.
 
Murrmurr said:
Yes, that kind of thing happens. All too often. Security software would be way more reliable than fallible humans.

You make a good point - this software (that I'm imagining) should not only check that all computers in the building are turned off, but lights, too.
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At one time, a lot of security interior patrols relied on a mechanical device that was a clock that the guard carried around on their patrols. At specific locations there would be a small key attached to the wall, which the guard would insert into the clock they were carrying. By doing this the guard was marking the time when they were at the location, within the building, and a card inside the clock was marked. We used to call it the "Mechanical Rat " because if the guard didn't walk the patrol , the card would show that the clock wasn't being updated properly. As the supervisor, I had the job of reading the clock punch cards, to ensure that the guard was doing their rounds properly.

The modern version of this uses a I phone instead of a big clunky clock that hung over the shoulder of the security guard. Now the guard just passes the phone near a wall fixture, as they do their patrols. Same results. JIM.
 
jimintoronto said:
At one time, a lot of security interior patrols relied on a mechanical device that was a clock that the guard carried around on their patrols. At specific locations there would be a small key attached to the wall, which the guard would insert into the clock they were carrying. By doing this the guard was marking the time when they were at the location, within the building, and a card inside the clock was marked. We used to call it the "Mechanical Rat " because if the guard didn't walk the patrol , the card would show that the clock wasn't being updated properly. As the supervisor, I had the job of reading the clock punch cards, to ensure that the guard was doing their rounds properly.

The modern version of this uses a I phone instead of a big clunky clock that hung over the shoulder of the security guard. Now the guard just passes the phone near a wall fixture, as they do their patrols. Same results. JIM.
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The woman who was found dead after 4 days couldn't have been seen by a guard on patrol unless s/he entered the woman's work-space....not technically a cubical, but it had a couple walls a few feet high that would obscure a patrolling guard's view of her if she was lying on her desk. She was. She was slumped forward in her chair with her upper body lying on her desk.

There were probably several hundred desks in that building, which had at least four levels and dozens of offices on each level.

I'm not criticizing the security people - that's a huge building - I'm only suggesting an extra layer of security via software that monitors the computers and lights...when they turn on and off, and some sort of alert if they're on when they're supposed to be off.
 
Beezer said:
How important can your job be when you are dead at your desk for 4 days, and nobody notices.

Just sayin...
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The Friday I get because I actually had supervisors who started their weekends by 10-1100 Friday morning. But Monday morning?

But then many employees complain if they think they are constantly being watched.

But again most in life or workplace are into their own life and either literally have tunnel vision or are totally distracted by other things. There are blissfully ignorant who like to play dumb to avoid people and situations
 
At least that woman was found dead after four days. In 2006 a woman was found in her apartment in front of a still running TV after having been dead for three years! I sure hope that I’m found before my cats eat me… 🙀

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No matter how many workers in our office there is almost always someone in a cubicle next to us that we say good-morning to if nothing else. I just can't get over this. I always kept my desk well supplied from the stock room and my lazy co-workers would take things from my desk rather than walk back to the supply room. I'd like to think they would have noticed I was dead while stealing.
 
In the 1980s I had a job at a company that wouldn't let any of us work alone, no overtime or weekends, because they'd had an employee that died in the office on the weekend and they weren't found until Monday.

I think for a lot of people that live alone, dying at work (even if not found for a few days) is a faster way to be found. Though most employers that I've had would track people down if they missed a few days of work, I guess they do that so if someone had died they wouldn't remain unfound.

Though even if someone else lives with you that isn't a guarantee of being found in a timely manner, when I had a temp clerical job at a visiting nurses company, one of the nurses said a woman she went to check on had been dead a couple days, head down in the sofa (like lost her balance and then suffocated) and her husband had so much dementia he hadn't even realized she was dead.
 
There is no one answer as it is different for every company worked places where security does a walk through looking in each cubicle. Honestly the bigger thing they tend to notice is if a car is still in parking lot.

The badge in process more often then not does little but show when she came in ... some places have a badge Out process too but that is extremely difficult to operate when example a evacuation of building for even a fire drill.

It is very sad that seemingly no one was asking where she was ....
 

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