Episode 57: The Ex-Coworker I Bruised and Bloodied

I came in a few weeks ago and knew I wouldn’t be able to stay at my desk that morning. I didn’t really know the details about why, but one of our team members was leaving the company. So instead of having his coworkers around to watch him box up his stuff and be escorted out of the building*, several of us went for a little outing to the on-site cafeteria to eat breakfast and wait.

We sat by the windows eating our egg and cheese sandwiches. It was a nice view of the parking lot, but we could also see all of downtown Salt Lake, out to the airport, the south end of the Great Salt Lake and the smog accumulating over it all. We also saw one of our quiet coworkers walking through the parking lot so I picked up my phone and gave her a call. She answered, I said, “Look up,” then we all waved like crazy. “Oh, hi you guys.” She was out for a walk so that she also wouldn’t be at her desk. Once we all got back a little later, Coworker had become Ex-Coworker. We weren’t around for the transition.

One of the first times I met Ex-Coworker was when we invited him to come outside on a nice day and play some Frisbee for a break with us. We made a big circle around some trees and grass on a small hill across the street and started playing. He was across the circle from me and because of some strong winds, I had to fling the Frisbee hard to get it to fly straight to him. So I flicked my wrist and tossed it.

It was a nice throw. Whipping straight to him despite the crosswinds.

He put up his hand to catch it, but misjudged the speed of the toss from the girl across the circle. The Frisbee bounced off his hand and tagged him in the face, right between the eyes.

Blood.

Not everywhere, though, but he was cut.

And I had done it.

Everybody stood there because he was the new guy and who knows how he’ll react. I wanted to run over and apologize, but I’ve played enough sports to know that there are some people who in the moment, don’t want a hand on their shoulder waiting for their eyes to stop watering. I’m sure he wasn’t crying. It was just because his eyes were stinging.

I apologized lots when he was back at his desk. He said, it’s cool, and mentioned something about how girls shouldn’t throw the Frisbee that hard. Oops.

The next day, he had a black eye.

I apologized again. I felt really bad.

Wherever he works next, I hope he doesn’t have a coworker attack him with a Frisbee. He’s been there. Done that. The end.

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*Because we work in IT, we have lots of access to our computer systems, meaning POWER, so whether it’s our last day at the company by choice or by HR’s choice, all IT people are escorted out of the building.