I was just reading a news story, and it made me laugh. Maybe that’s horrible of me (you’ll find out why in just a second) but I couldn’t help myself. It just seems like something I would do.
A janitor in Poughkeepsie, New York, was mopping the floor on Friday night, the 23rd of February, when the door swung shut behind him. That wouldn’t be so bad, except the room was a “secure room,” meaning the door locked from the outside when it shut behind him. To top it all off, he left his cell phone in his coat pocket, in the other room. He tried pounding on the door, but no one heard him.
He was left there for two and a half days.
His relatives drove around town looking for him, members of the cleaning crew looked for him, but apparently no one thought to look in that particular room. He had no food or water for those two and a half days. When a county employee finally found him and let him out, 60 hours later, he was so distraught from the experience he couldn’t eat.
Now, I’m laughing not because I take pleasure in this poor guy’s pain, but because this completely and utterly sounds like something I would do. I tend to do “airheady” things on a regular basis (see this blog if you don’t believe me) and I think the only reason I haven’t been locked in a secure room for 60 hours at a time is because I don’t work in an area that has a secure room in it. If I did, you can be sure I probably would have locked myself in it. One time I managed to lock myself in a bathroom–a bathroom with no door handle and no lock. Don’t ask.
The only part that doesn’t sound like me is the “no food” part. Anyone who knows me can testify: If I get hungry, I am horrible to be around. Just forget it. I throw up, faint, get horrible headaches, and make hibernating bears look as sweet as pie when I haven’t eaten for a while. And when I say “a while,” I mean like three or four hours. If I haven’t eaten for 60 hours, the rescuing crew better hope they brought food with them, or cannibalism may quickly make its way back into the 21st Century.
So just how dedicated are you to your job? Willing to spend the weekend in a locked room without food or water? Yeah, me either…
Wanting to learn more about jobs that don’t require you to go into secure rooms in order to perform them? Here’s some recent blogs you may want to check out:
Getting Paid to Pick up Your Mail