I work an office job. Non-customer facing. I was at my cubicle when I hear a loud thud like someone slammed their hands on their keyboard. I stand up my coworker in the cubicle right in front of me is slumped on her keyboard. I run around to her desk and try to wake her up and I get no response. Quickly I call 911 and now other coworkers are helping me give her first aid. I’m shouting out instructions to my coworker that the 911 operator is giving me. They’re giving her CPR and chest compressions. She’s not coming back to consciousness. Medics get there, they clear the area but everyone is frozen just watching. They try CPR too and chest compressions while they check her vitals and nothing. They pull out the defibrillator and after like a few tries they bring her back but they say her vitals are faint and they they put her on a stretcher and take her.
Everyone is shaken up, all of the people in our department had been there a while so most of us knew her for at least 3-4 years if not more. 1-2 people were a little >1 year in. The girls were crying, I was kind of frozen and coming down from the adrenaline high. Our manager’s manager comes out and says something that I will never forget and truly made me realize that we do not f**kin matter to companies. Something that made me realize, every single year I will take all of my sick time, all of my personal time and all of my vacation time and I will never be loyal to a company. He said, “I know a lot of you are shook up, but it’s early in the day. We have to make calls and close some deals. Take 5 minutes and come back and hit the phones. It’s as business as usual.” At this point we didn’t even know if our friend was okay or if she would survive.