You can check out any time you like

September 2, 2024 5:25 AM

"An employee who spoke with KPNX on the condition of anonymity said a colleague found her at her desk while walking around the building and that several people had smelled a foul odor, but believed it to be faulty plumbing. Wells Fargo confirmed she sat in an under-populated area of the building."

This is far from the first time someone has died at work and their body gone undiscovered for days. Sometimes work thought to be the most dangerous is not the most dangerous. See also: Killed at Work: U.S. Worker Memorial Database

posted by cupcakeninja (41 comments total)

Happy Labor Day, everyone. Support your local union efforts.
posted by heyitsgogi at 5:56 AM on September 2 [54 favorites]

And it’s Wells Fargo, natch.
posted by Melismata at 6:31 AM on September 2 [11 favorites]

unwells farwent ?
posted by clandestiny's child at 6:36 AM on September 2 [4 favorites]

The Japanese have a word for dying at work, karoshi, meaning something like "death from overwork" but it's not strictly a Japanese thing.

What I don't understand here is the "under-populated area of the building". Has Wells Fargo laid off so many people it has vast numbers of empty cubicles? I've never worked anywhere with anything other than fully-occupied cube farms.
posted by tommasz at 6:36 AM on September 2 [4 favorites]

Has Wells Fargo laid off so many people it has vast numbers of empty cubicles?

That's a possibility. Or sometimes a corp will have a big floor with "room to grow" either because they intend to hire more later or because another office is slated to shutter and send its employees over later. There may be people organized by teams with big gaps. I've also worked places where floors were renovated in waves and isolated employees got left in the older area.

It's all 10x more random since COVID and remote/hybrid work, too. There are sometimes huge spaces intended for 100% in office teams where people no longer work that way.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:44 AM on September 2 [9 favorites]

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague [ INSERT NAME HERE] Our thoughts are with their friends/family/loved ones that they may or may not have had. We are committed to the safety and wellbeing of our workforce at [INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE] and are reviewing our procedures to ensure that this sort of tragedy never happens again. --[INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE], where we treat you like an individual."
posted by dannyboybell at 7:10 AM on September 2 [15 favorites]

Someone dying at a non-visible desk on a Friday and not being discovered until Monday is sad, but not, like, super weird.

On the other hand, Your Worst Boss Ever is currently composing a company-wide email explaining how this sort of thing totally justifies open plan offices.

[Bonus round: the folks at the Media Archeology Lab have discovered a novel way to break up those too-large office spaces.]
posted by phooky at 7:14 AM on September 2 [20 favorites]

It is really sad. This was over a weekend and if hybrid work follows the pattern at my workplace, Friday and Monday are lighter days. At my work we have good calendars to show when people are in, but it would be more likely someone’s absence in Teams would be noted before people would assume someone was in a cubicle off somewhere.

I work best in quiet places so I come in Fridays and it is a ghost town so I can relate. I’m more sad this person didn’t have family/friends checking up although that too is relatable.

I worry that the publicity around this kind of thing will speed return-to-work orders - but that doesn’t take away from the sadness of it.

For industrial accidents and workplace safety though, know your rights. Refuse unsafe work. Don’t drive exhausted or distracted. Support unions and strong legislation.
posted by warriorqueen at 7:24 AM on September 2 [14 favorites]

If there's a keycard to show when people enter or leave an area - this company is guilty of something.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:28 AM on September 2 [7 favorites]

Most buildings I’ve worked in, unless they were higher-security locations, only require a badge swipe at a door or turnstile to get in, not to get out. If this person worked in the vault or lockbox, their absence of a departing swipe would get noticed at some point.
posted by dr_dank at 7:50 AM on September 2 [7 favorites]

Most I've worked in needed a swipe each way.
posted by tiny frying pan at 8:08 AM on September 2 [1 favorite]

(Clearly they could have had some bare minimum security to keep this from happening, if not electronic, ONE physical security guard walking the floor?)
posted by tiny frying pan at 8:09 AM on September 2 [4 favorites]

Most I've worked in needed a swipe each way.

I have never worked in such a place and would be surprised if more than 5% of American workers were required to do this.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:17 AM on September 2 [16 favorites]

→ ONE physical security guard walking the floor?

Wells Fargo are likely blaming that one minimum-wage security guard who didn't walk the floor over the weekend.
posted by scruss at 8:54 AM on September 2 [9 favorites]

I have never worked in such a place and would be surprised if more than 5% of American workers were required to do this.

Ok? We are just data point against data point here. I'm not lying about it.
posted by tiny frying pan at 9:04 AM on September 2 [2 favorites]

Did she die doing what she loved?
posted by Czjewel at 9:22 AM on September 2 [3 favorites]

We badge in and out, but no alarm bells would go off if you badged in on Friday and didn't badge out. We've had discussions at work about people coming in at odd hours. It was decided that ideally, you should tell someone where you are and how long you expect to be there. Then you call when you leave.

Relatedly, we also have a whiteboard where you are supposed to sign in and out so that, in the event of a fire, someone could grab the board and tell firemen if someone was still in the building. In fire drills I have never known the whiteboard to be accurate, though. You still ask "Have you seen so-and-so?"
posted by acrasis at 9:28 AM on September 2 [3 favorites]

I have never worked in such a place

Nor have I. I imagine the safety officer would have a fit if, during an emergency, everyone had to line up and do the equivalent of punching out.

I have also worked in underpopulated office spaces; this story is no surprise, to me.
posted by Rash at 9:48 AM on September 2 [2 favorites]

But it was obviously critical to Wells Fargo's culture that she return to the office 3 days a week so there could be in person interaction (/hamburger)
posted by superna at 9:58 AM on September 2 [13 favorites]

I’ve worked in 8 different buildings at least in four different industries and never had to badge out while on salary. Only at my martial arts academy, where there were mostly hourly workers, did people punch out. Those records were generally reviewed either the next day-ish (for the supervisor to approve hours) or at payroll. But people forgot to punch out regularly and my thought would never have been that they were still inside.
posted by warriorqueen at 10:10 AM on September 2 [3 favorites]

Dying at work is my worst nightmare. I saw the body of a person who died of a heart attack at work and that was the first thing that sent me into therapy. I can think of no more awful way to die than expiring at my desk.

So much empathy to that poor woman's family, friends and coworkers.
posted by Joey Michaels at 10:18 AM on September 2 [7 favorites]

I dunno, as long as she went quickly and painlessly I don't see much difference between dying at a desk at work vs. dying in your sleep in bed at home. My office does have a badge-in-badge-out timekeeping system so maaaaaybe someone would notice if I didn't badge out one evening, but not until the following day at the earliest.

For folks like me who live alone, if I went incommunicado for a long weekend my friends would assume it's because I'm studying for a civil exam -- which I am -- and my parents wouldn't do much unless an entire week went by with no visit or phone call. Honestly, the first people to notice would probably be the folks at work after I no-call-no-show a few days.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:47 AM on September 2 [4 favorites]

If people are looking for data points, I had to badge in/badge out at a job earlier this year. And they were very strict about enforcing the "everybody has to swipe a badge in, even if you're entering/exiting as a group" and "never open a door for somebody." And that was for every single person working in the organization, no matter their status or title.

The current place is much less strict. Enter a code to open the door. Don't worry about who else is with you. No code upon exit.
posted by sardonyx at 11:41 AM on September 2 [1 favorite]

Oh, and the previous place was also badge in/badge out, although it didn't care if you let in a horde with you.
posted by sardonyx at 11:58 AM on September 2

If this person worked in the vault or lockbox, their absence of a departing swipe would get noticed at some point.

Yeah I work in a little of one, little of the other - there are some places where you just need to know the person is authorized to access (and make a record of it) and some where you need to track who is there (at what times), so swiping out is a thing. (Obviously in an emergency you just hit the crash bar, not "line up to swipe out")

Thing is, even in most of the swipe-out places, it's forensic. If there's an issue or question, someone can pull up the records after the fact. There's nobody monitoring it in real time.Maybe it would refuse to let you in a second time if it thought you were still in there, and make you go to security and explain yourself.

There's only one place where I think it's being tracked in real time, and that requires you to physically exchange your normal badge for a special "in the area" temporary one, and give it back (to get your regular one back) when you leave. And also involves US Marines with guns.
posted by ctmf at 12:03 PM on September 2 [2 favorites]

My wfh fam is with a company that can audit your work interface with a granularity of “How many mouse clicks?” “How many files opened and closed?” “How many updates and saves.”

So no. They could determine if someone was working or not. They could use that for people’s safety, as much as they love to use it to fire people.
posted by toodleydoodley at 12:03 PM on September 2 [1 favorite]

That said, where I work it's not the technology that's supposed to track people it's supervision. I'm expected to know when my people are on the clock and roughly where they're at. If we evacuate a building, I'm expected to know if anyone I'm responsible for is in that building. And if they don't call/email/text or something to let me know they're out at the end of the day, I'm supposed to follow up and ask. Which may seem kind of overbearing, but it's for the security/safety reasons.
posted by ctmf at 12:07 PM on September 2 [1 favorite]

Don't worry about who else is with you.

Security calls this 'piggybacking' and some places are quite persnickety about the enforcement. At a NASA facility where I worked, drivers and passengers have to show badges for entry through the gate, but pedestrians can unlock a NYC-subway-style turnstile with their badge... so of course, coming back from lunch, we had a game of 'how many could get through on one badge' and about the time we elevated our count from three bodies to four, Security reviewed camera footage, and after somebody had a talking-to, our game wasn't fun any more.
posted by Rash at 12:11 PM on September 2 [4 favorites]

and after somebody had a talking-to, our game wasn't fun any more.

Lol, we had someone get fired for that. Of course there was more to the story - the piggyback-er was a big creepy dude who decided it would be fun to piggyback through the turnstile with the small woman in front of him who was NOT in on the plan and NOT a friend of his.
posted by ctmf at 12:19 PM on September 2 [1 favorite]

.
posted by limeonaire at 1:49 PM on September 2 [1 favorite]

I think the issue here isn't so much swiping (who's checking that anyway) so much as she was situated far away from others. (Collaboration!)
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:49 PM on September 2

God… if it weren’t for my wife would miss me I could probably be missing for a week at my office. My door is pretty secure too, might be longer. A friend was t feeling great and stepped out of a meeting and was found dead when they kicked in the toilet door about five hours later.
posted by Iteki at 3:01 PM on September 2 [2 favorites]

Wells Fargo is in the middle of enforcing a hub strategy - they're laying off large numbers of staff who are located outside of select locations (article). This certainly demonstrates how effective the in-person collaboration is proving. < /sarcasm>
posted by past unusual at 3:46 PM on September 2 [2 favorites]

Prudhomme scanned in at 7 am on Friday 8/16, and police said she never scanned out of the building. She was pronounced dead at 4:55 pm on Tuesday 8/20. A co-worker told the local NBC affiliate that several people smelled a foul odor but passed it off as faulty plumbing, and that the building has 24/7 security. They said their direct management addressed the incident, offered the counseling services and told workers the building was thoroughly cleaned. Local ABC affiliate has a co-worker saying the smell was noticed on Monday morning, and that someone had to have passed by Prudhomme given the office layout.

The cause of death is pending determination by the Maricopa County medical examiner. Police said the preliminary investigation showed no obvious signs of foul play. The investigation continues [in a thoroughly cleaned building].
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:10 PM on September 2

Dead body is a...specific flavor of funk, I'm all, "I'm afraid to ask what they thought happened to the plumbing and how often the plumbing was having issues."

vast numbers of empty cubicles?

My work building is kinda like that. Some areas are full of used cubes, but my area of the office is far off and generally looks like it's been abandoned for years until we moved in, probably because it was. I've never seen so much empty space in an office. I think most people are in the Fancy Building and I'm in the Ratty Building that's supposed to be remodeled *someday* (lolno) and Ratty Building just holds the extra people, but I enjoy the quiet and empty space. This is to say that yes, nobody would notice me dead until Monday morning.

Did she die doing what she loved?

A coworker of mine died a few years ago (not at the office, she had weird health shit that eventually did her in) and another coworker apparently decided to retire because that coworker never did make it to retirement.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:54 PM on September 2

I dunno, as long as she went quickly and painlessly I don't see much difference between dying at a desk at work vs. dying in your sleep in bed at home.

If I died at work, someone from the company would have to cleanup the mess. This thought provides me some comfort.
posted by mikelieman at 3:53 AM on September 3 [3 favorites]

I have never worked in such a place and would be surprised if more than 5% of American workers were required to do this.

Sure is weird when ones personal experience doesn't align with others. Performing industrial trade work I haven't worked anywhere that didn't require and strictly monitor brassing in and out for safety reasons for a couple decades. And the practice goes back so far that it's called brassing in/out because it used to be monitored with little personalized brass disks hung on a wall when you showed up and removed when you left or vice versa.

Though it is rarely monitored in real time I'd bet way more than 5% of workers have to punch a realtime clock whether mechanical or virtual. But that is probably more common for people making minimum wage. Instead it's used to audit time worked after the fact just like it appears to have been used in this case.
posted by Mitheral at 5:18 AM on September 3 [2 favorites]

Our employees' union agreement specifically says no time clocks. Also, no pulling door access records unless for a specific investigation, not just curiosity or fishing expeditions.
posted by ctmf at 11:29 AM on September 3 [2 favorites]

(no pulling the records by management, security people can do security things with them.)
posted by ctmf at 11:30 AM on September 3

Every big office I've worked in has required tagging a card to get both in and out. Not because anyone was monitoring working hours (although that was done a few times to investigate concerns of someone claiming to be working but not), but because, if people can get out the door without their access card, there's an endless queue of people outside the door who have left their card inside. If you can't get out without the card, you can't lock yourself out. Piggybacking has always been very explicitly prohibited and I recall one occasion where a person with a gripe against a completely different government department piggybacked into the office and started assaulting staff.

Those offices have all been government ones, so there's perhaps more concern about security as opposed to tracking employees. One of those required you to use your access card to lock/unlock your computer, so you couldn't leave the office without securing your computer.

I've always required staff to make sure there is at least one other person in the office if they're working after hours, or at least check-in/out with someone by phone, after we had someone have a heart attack while working alone at night and they only survived because a cleaner happened along just in time. I can imagine lots of people who would not be missed over a weekend, unfortunately. Many people live solitary lives outside work.
posted by dg at 5:50 PM on September 3

As a data point, badging in but not out is so common that exploiting this by going to work, badging in to be registered as on-site for the day, staying for a coffee, then leaving to finish the day at home is a common practice. It's called "coffee badging."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:58 PM on September 3