William H.A. Willbond MSM, CD
WHY IT DOESN’T PAY TO WORK TOO HARD
To party too much or work too hard
Both can cause your death
You can work your very best
Sitting lonely at your desk
Or you can party the night away
Terrible hangovers every day
Eventually you will have to pay
“Partied too hard” is what they’ll say
You’d get mentioned in the Times
For committing drunken crimes?
Or you get an article about your death
Nearly a week after your last breath
Come in to work early and leave late
Just what difference that will make?
This is what the Times article said:
Nearly a week this man’s been dead!
©Copyright April 4, 2007 by William H.A. Willbond MSM, CD
Author’s Note: This poem was inspired by the following article that appeared in the New York Times
Worker Dead At Desk for Five Days
From the New York Times: Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting dead at his desk for five days before anyone asked if he was feeling okay. George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proof-reader at a New York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open-plan office he shared with 23 other workers.
He quietly passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed until Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was working during the weekend.
His boss, Elliot Wachiaski, said: “George was always the first guy in each morning and the last to leave at night, so no one found it unusual that he was in the same position all that time and didn‘t say anything. He was always absorbed in his work and kept much to himself.”
A post mortem examination revealed that he had been dead for live days after suffering a coronary. George was proofreading manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died.
You may want to give your co-workers a nudge occasionally. The moral of the story:
Don't work too hard. Nobody notices anyway.