# Another way to tell if your coworkers don't like you: They leave you dead at your desk for four days **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 29, 2024, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441 "2024-08-29T22:04:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/141 "2024-09-03T00:14:42Z")
Aaaaackkk! Truly though folks really worried about it can get the “help, I’ve fallen and can’t get up” thing. I think it lets them know you’re down for a bit with out self activation. My CGM will do this, plus the annoying part where it tells everyone I know my glucose is low. I’ve been on the floor a couple times because of it,so it’s needed. I know. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/142 "2024-09-03T00:16:49Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > In my 25 years of finding corpses who died both naturally and unnaturally I never found one that defecated. You need working muscles to poop. It’s possible if you were just about to go but it’s not common. > > This matches my 42 years of nursing experience. Theoretically possible, but uncommon. So, @Beckdawrek, not something you need to worry about. What about urination? That’s what I had thought was common, if the bladder had much in it, as the bladder sphincter muscles relax. But I might be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/143 "2024-09-03T00:21:04Z")
My thinking(outside of just hearsay, not knowing the science) that the muscles were non-working after death and stuff just fell out. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/144 "2024-09-03T06:36:25Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > Chances are a nurse will see many _recently deceased_ - before they are ferried off to the morgue, hence suffer from systematically skewed samples / selection bias … Yes, but @Loach said he saw corpses for 25 years as a policeman, presumably not all fresh ones. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/145 "2024-09-03T11:55:35Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Yes, but @Loach said he saw corpses for 25 years as a policeman, presumably not all fresh ones. yep, maybe he can shed some (general) light on this, while staying out of TMI-land, . ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/146 "2024-09-03T14:08:23Z")
Maybe gas can push stuff out. But otherwise, there’s nothing in particular to make it move. Stuff is actively pushed through your digestive system by the muscles in the gi system. It doesn’t move on it’s own. That’s why people on opiate drugs get constipated. Because the gi muscles are relaxed and didn’t move as much. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/147 "2024-09-03T15:09:36Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Maybe gas can push stuff out. Expanding gas paired with relaxation of anal sphincter musculature. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/148 "2024-09-03T16:04:59Z")
> [@Patx2](#): > > Wtf? How does something like that even happen? In my workplace (from which I retired four months ago) this could easily happen post-lockdown. Our main building is about half a kilometre long, and maybe an eighth of a km wide. About a third of the building is manufacturing and the rest is offices, which were full pre-covid. Post lockdown there was a huge percentage of WFH which left very large spaces completely unpopulated but fully equipped. One such space is about 2100 sq ft with a vast, empty cubicle farm in it. Someone could, if they really wanted solitude, work in the middle of that area and if they were quiet enough I don’t think that they would be found. Despite all that, my company is actually really good to work for. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/149 "2024-09-03T19:11:44Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > What about urination? > > That’s what I had thought was common, if the bladder had much in it, as the bladder sphincter muscles relax. Right after my last blood donation, I fainted – first time ever – and discovered when I recovered that I’d wet myself. When I mentioned passing out to my cardiologist, he said don’t worry; when I joked about wetting myself his face changed and he suggested not donating again. Apparently you have to be deeply out for that to happen. Oh, yeh – many years ago I had to cut down a suicide by hanging, and he’d definitely urinated, soaking the carpet below him. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/150 "2024-09-03T19:40:46Z")
re: postmortem defecation, probably TMI, you’ve been warned, etc. Former hospice caregiver here. (I told you, TMI incoming…) In my 14 years as a CNA for almost exclusively dying patients I saw postmortem defecation several times. One particularly memorable lady was actively defecating while I was trying to clean her body in prep for the funeral home to arrive with the body bag. So while not common, it’s not at all unheard of. A lot of my patients were urinary incontinent so they may have had postmortem urination but I’m not remembering any specific instance of that happening – it was hard to tell if the wet Depend was from before they passed or after. I also had someone puke on me. A dead someone, who I was helping place into a body bag. Needless to say, those scrubs were thrown out, not washed. > [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Right after my last blood donation, I fainted – first time ever – and discovered when I recovered that I’d wet myself. My wife once fainted in a doctor’s office and when she came to she promptly threw up – and voided her bladder. We were at a specialty clinic several hours from home, so had to borrow a chuck from the clinic for the car seat for the drive home. We had a long talk after that about her fainting triggers and what she should do to avoid those in the future. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/151 "2024-09-03T22:58:20Z")
Barfing post-faint is pretty common. Not necessarily huge heaves but enough to make a mess. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/152 "2024-09-03T22:59:54Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > One such space is about 2100 sq ft with a vast, empty cubicle farm in it. 2100sf is the size of a rather modest US house. Hardly space enough for a vast cube farm. A couple dozen cubes? Sure. Vast? Not even close. Are you missing a zero or two? Or are those square meters? ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/153 "2024-09-03T23:19:03Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > 2100sf is the size of a rather modest US house. Hardly space enough for a vast cube farm. A couple dozen cubes? Sure. Vast? Not even close. > > Are you missing a zero or two? Or are those square meters? You’re right. It was a stupid conversion error. The actual area is approximately 16,000 ft², with some blocked sight lines (a few structural pillars, elevator banks and stairwell etc). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/154 "2024-09-03T23:27:15Z")
Yeah. You can lose (or hide) a body easily in a 130’x130’ cube farm / rat maze. Don’t feel bad; my last units conversion error in a post was off by 10^3. Oops. 😉 🤦‍♂️ ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441/155 "2024-09-03T23:49:19Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > yep, maybe he can shed some (general) light on this, while staying out of TMI-land, This seems pretty definitive - I don’t know what more you think he needs to say. > [@Loach](#): > > In my 25 years of finding corpses who died both naturally and unnaturally I never found one that defecated. You need working muscles to poop. It’s possible if you were just about to go but it’s not common. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-way-to-tell-if-your-coworkers-dont-like-you-they-leave-you-dead-at-your-desk-for-four-days/1006441.md?page=7)