2 coworkers were just informed of their daughter's death. They were phoned at work and given the news. MRS is sobbing uncontrollably and MR is in a catatonic state.
There is a thick heavy air of sadness in the office that cannot be ignored. Everyone feels incredibly depressed, even those who don't know why. People walk in and immediately their laughter and conversation is brought to a halt.
I feel tears in my own eyes even though I never knew the girl, who was only a few years older than me.
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MR and MRS have now left, and the rest of the office has continued to go about their business. However, the heaviness remains, and it is extremely difficult to remember what life was like before the sad cloud drew up.
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The Future of Orion
1 day ago
6 comments:
i had similar feelings when my boss got news that his sister died. it was odd. i'd never met her. he is never very emotional. he didn't even seem particularly close with his family. but still i found myself tearing up thinking about it while he was out that week. then when he came back it was all, what do you say? what do you do? what is appropriate to ask or offer? but somehow normalcy returns and the sad cloud goes away.
and you go back to disliking your job, the same as always.
yeah, they'll be out the rest of the week. But when they come back, am I supposed to just ignore the reason they were gone? I don't know them that well. What's the etiquette on this?
i still never really figured out proper etiquette. even though i am really the only person in his immediate department, i don't know my boss that well either. i think i very purposefully asked "how are you doing" when i first saw him, let him say whatever [it wasn't much], then just sort of quietly and gently went on with our week. i also tried to keep him caught up on work as well as i could while he was gone, at least the things i could feasibly do and not screw up on my own. he probably didn't even notice, but i didn't really know what else to do in a practical way. i don't think there is a completely comfortable way to navigate these things.
yeah, I think I'll ask how they are, but that's all I can do.
Oh my god. That is so awful. And I can't believe that they found out from a phone call. How old was she? What happened? That is really awful.
I think she was like 32 or 33. I still don't know what happened - I didn't ask for details. But I do know that she lived in NJ so there was no reason they couldn't have been told in person.
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