We all know the old saying, never get too out of control at the office party. There is always going to be one person who does, don't be that person. The following stories are from people who saw truly insane and alarming things at their office holiday party. We bet there was some regret after this. Some stories have been edited for clarity.
A War For The Ages
“I left the company party early. I am not much of a party commando. I went home, which was only about five minutes from the office, and went to bed.
At about one o’clock in the morning my phone rang. It was the VP of Sales. ‘Get to the Courtyard, quick!,’ he yelled, ‘Hurry!’ And he slammed down the phone.
What on earth?
I was half asleep but got up, brushed my teeth, put on my suit and tie and jumped into my car. It was pouring rain. As I approached the Norwood Courtyard Marriot I saw the lights of the fire engines and police cars. I couldn’t get up the road. I parked on Route One and hopped out of the car with my umbrella. As I approached the Courtyard I noticed all the guests standing in their pajamas and coats standing miserably in the rain, huddling as close to the canopy as they could. The epilepsy-inducing strobe lights in the hotel were going off in every corridor. The honking of the alarms was ear-shattering. I had gotten there just as the engines, and before the police.
Underneath the carport leading to the front lobby were two large men grappling on the ground, cursing and punching, their white dress shirts torn and muddy and covered in blood. These men were having at it. The firemen ignored them and entered the lobby of the hotel. The soaking, sullen guests were watching the fight with undisguised hatred.
The man on top was our top salesman, a big man out of Texas, with a big mouth and a big need to be hammered and ‘be right.’ The man on the bottom was our top salesman from England, a large-mouthed braggart of the first sort who liked to insult the French – and the Americans, but who made book month after month.
As I watched in horror from under my umbrella the two top salesmen in the country were pounding the snot out of each other in a puddle of mud under the carport of the Marriott Courtyard. Inside the lobby the firemen were turning off the alarms. Smashed furniture and broken vases were everywhere. The night clerk was sobbing in the arms of another hotel employee.
A group of men strode up to me in messed up suits, ties askew, the rest of our sales force, all here for the annual sales meeting. They were all sloshed, but they stood there with me and watched the fight – and cheered.
Finally, the cops arrived. They came out with their nightsticks and started pulling the two men apart. Neither would have it and fought the cops with snarls and curses as they fought each other. Their faces were a mess of blood and bruises. Their expensive ties were destroyed as each man attempted to grab them and pull the other into his fist. Eventually the police broke them up and pulled them apart. There was yelling and kicking and pointing and threats as the cops dragged them away.
The salesmen looked at me with smirks and wide smiles. This was the greatest thing that had ever happened at a company sales meeting – ever. They were boisterous and chatty. The guests were still standing silently in the pouring rain until the firemen let them file back into the lobby. There’s no real bar in a Marriott Courtyard and what serves for a bar closes early. Apparently a group of salesmen had headed out after the company dinner in search of a bar. There are many bars in Norwood and apparently they found one. After a night of extremely heavy drinking feelings were easily hurt. The two most aggressive salesmen in the company had always hated each other. During the day they had cagey smiles and veiled insults for each other. But once the drinks flowed, the gloves came off.
The cops came outside.
‘Who’s in charge of these men,’ they asked. The salesmen all pointed at me. I was the only one sober with a tie still tight up against his neck. I was 28 years old. I gulped.
‘I’m not in charge,’ I said, ‘I was sent here by the company.’
‘These men are in serious trouble,’ the cop said. I put up my hands. What was I going to do? I didn’t know anything about stuff like this. And then the VP of Sales strode up. He was in a trench coat with a white shirt but no tie. He had driven from his home at top speed, calling me on the way because I lived so close. I don’t know what he thought I could do. Meanwhile, the salesmen behind me were all laughing and clapping me on the back. As soon as they saw the grim face of the VP they shut up and looked down like bad school boys. The VP looked at me and said, ‘You can go home now.’ And then he turned to the cop.
I looked at the salesmen from under my umbrella as they stood there in the rain, hammered, laughing, eyes shining with excitement.
‘What an excellent sales meeting,’ one of them said happily. I walked back to my car and went home.
The next day both of the men were at the meeting. They looked bad, very bad. I don’t know what the VP said or did. He had to bail them out, smooth it over. The company had to take responsibility for the damage. I have no idea how the company wasn’t thrown out of the Marriott Courtyard, yet here they all were in the meeting room, silent, hung over and embarrassed. Some engineer was making a speech. No one was paying attention.
By all accounts it was the best sales meeting ever.”
Now That Is A Strange Ratio
“This party was about 45 years ago, on July 4. The company held a big party on Lake Austin with an incredible amount of drinks and fried chicken. Given we were all blue-collar builders, a perfect choice.
One fellow got so blitzed he attacked the company CEO, attempting to drown him in three feet of water. The two foremen came to his rescue and dragged him to shore, his tie and starched shirt somewhat worse for near-drowning. The suit pants were a dead loss, due mostly to his flailing against a boundary rope. Really, had he stood up at any time he would have been fine. I am guessing he had never been punched before. He seemed not to be aware that he had been dragged only a short distance into the water.
Had he been slightly less a prick he would have never been attacked. Mostly we limited our torment of him to hiding his (white) hard hat. (We were all color -coded by rank).
The attacker was fired that day, but the union steward got an earful on the amount of drinks served relative to food provided. Someone with a mathematical bent estimated the amount of drinks by volume of the trailer it was in. The company provided two pieces of fried chicken plus sides but a dozen drinks per person. The steward’s argument was that the company was neglectful, to offer that amount of adult beverages on a 100 degree day, with a limited amount of food.
The attacker was welcomed back and made a hero for a week or so, until the guy who had been in prison got out and came back to work. His having been in a bad bar shootout eclipsed assault. I kinda get that.”
So That’s Why They Stopped The Open Bar?
“This happened many years ago and was tragic.
My boss got falling down sloshed at the party. In his inebriated state he was arguing with his girlfriend and, when she left the party, he determined to go after her. People present attempted to take his keys, but he was determined to catch up to his girlfriend and drove off.
According to the police he stopped for a six-pack which he consumed while driving.
He ran off the road that night. He was not wearing his seat belt. He was ejected from the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Given this tragic experience, my company decided to dispense with the open bar at the holiday party.”
Play Fight
“Oh, goodness. The white sniff in the toilets; the love making in the fire escapes that was caught on CCTV…
There was a night where a company group went to a restaurant. A pleasant time was had by all. Then two guys got up to go to the restroom. Within minutes, raised voices and smashing of bathroom facilities were heard. No one knows what went up the noses, but something did.
After a time, the rest of the party broke the locked bathroom door down. The bathroom was completely smashed up. The two guys spilled out punching each other. One other guy sat on one of them to try to stop it.
There was a spare storage refrigerator upstairs. That also got toppled and destroyed.
The restaurant staff were upstairs by then. They eventually got everyone outside, where the fight continued. One colleague had left his laptop upstairs, so his partner retrieved it. When she returned, he was about to jump into the fight, so she bashed him on the backside with his laptop. He is a fairly well-known actor, who has been in the Star Wars series, among others. She said: ‘What are you doing? You don’t know how to fight.’ He replied: ‘No, but I can act fighting.’
It got more unbelievable. A taxi pulled up and everyone tried to get one of the fighters into it to stop the fight. He refused. The driver got out and lunged at him with a roundhouse kick.
Eventually, one got into the taxi and the other walked up the street swearing loudly.
Seriously, if this had been a movie scene everyone would have said it was not credible. It really happened.
A colleague gave her credit card to the restaurant to cover the damage. The two fighters were friends again within a week…
My company was media. The two fighters are well-known journalists in Australia.”
I Guess He Had It Coming
“This is going back a few years. We had an office party off site. The office staff was usually a pretty reserved bunch. More co-workers than friends.
So the night of the party the boss makes a toast and everybody drinks. Then someone else made a toast and on and on. Pretty soon the entire room was pretty much falling down sloshed. Yup, drinking can do some pretty crazy stuff.
It was getting pretty wild. I had only the one drink. I’ve learned years ago, DON’T GET HAMMERED AT THE OFFICE PARTY!
So, the night started really getting crazy. Too crazy for me and I split.
The following Monday everyone was back at work. But everyone was very reserved and no one was speaking about the party… And I wondered why.
Well, about 11 a.m. this guy walks into the office and up to the receptionist and says. ‘WHERE’S BRADSHAW!???’ (not his real name.) The receptionist is startled and isn’t quite sure what to say when this guy notices Bradshaw’s name on his office door. He walks past the reception and kicks the door open. I saw this happen and was wonder exactly what was going on. I heard Bradshaw the big mouth bellow ‘Who are you?!’
I heard BANG SMASH BANG SMASH and ran over the office afraid the boss was being attacked. When I got to the office, Bradshaw was on the floor, his face bloodied. The guy yells, ‘I’m Smith, you banged Melanie. You’ve ruined my life. We were going to get married and you ruined everything you weasel’
Seems that after I left the party, Melanie the office girl and Bradshaw had snuck off together. When she arrived home later, in a still rather inebriated state, Melanie’s boyfriend realized she came home with no underwear and Bradshaw’s pawing hands had left marks down her back and a rather large hickey on her neck.
There was nothing Bradshaw could do. If he pressed charges his wife would find out about the affair. I’m assuming he went home and told her he got mugged or something. Most likely he had to go to the hospital because he was pretty messed up.
In the long run it became a disaster. Melanie’s boyfriend called off the engagement and left her. Turns out she was pregnant and now didn’t’ know who the father was. She ended up calling Bradshaw’s wife to tell him he fathered her baby. Bradshaw’s wife left him. Melanie of course lost her job. The baby was stillborn not knowing who the father was.
Bradshaw ended up having some kind of mental breakdown after insisting he was being followed. The company collapsed almost overnight and everyone became unemployed.
The last I heard Melanie was living on welfare. Her former fiancé met another girl and is now quite wealthy owing several tire shops.
Bradshaw never recovered. His wife sued for divorce and took pretty much everything.
That’s life in the fast lane for ya!”
Hopefully He’s Happier Now
“At a Christmas party of my wife’s employer, her boss, the CEO, got very, very hammered and loudly came out of the closet. This came as a tremendous shock to his wife and mother of his three children, and embarrassed everyone watching. The CEO’s wife, unsurprisingly, left him. The company stopped holding Christmas parties after that.”
What A Power Move
“Went as a date to a work party with a female attorney. Open bar, phenomenal food. Everything was amazing EXCEPT the smell periodically through the night. Turns out one of the younger interns found out he never got the job opening. So he pooped himself and drank all night, acting as if nothing ever happened.”
That’s Harrassment
“This happened just a few months before I was hired. We had a drink tasting for the managers with just some cheese, minor hors d’ouvres, etc. One particular manager got completely sloshed got super flirty with another manager from a different department who was significantly younger and good-looking.
At some point, this young lady put some scented lotion on her hands. Smelling this, the hammered manager came over to her and pulled his johnson out and asked her to put some lotion on there too. Right in the middle of the room and tasting.
I heard he was gone instantly. He was recently found out to currently be a tour guide on a duckboat and a bad one at that.”
A True Rollercoaster
“Worked at polish retirement home.
Every year the Christmas party is held in the residents party room.
Approximately 30 late 40s/early 50s Polish women pounded back the drink like they shouldn’t have been alive afterwards.
Many insane things each year. Always some passed out, always some of them competed to get the attention of the one and only male – the crazy drinking maintenance man, and always at least one person ended up crying. Once they all happened at once:
Nurses got blasted.
Maintenance dude got blasted.
Nurses had him sit with them at one of the tables.
They played some weird drinking game as best I could tell.
They would make out with him, then take a shot after.
Then they all cheer.
Eventually I hear chanting and look over. One of the girls is on her knees now, quite sure she is blowing him. Except the chanting sounds more like yelling. Look closer she doesn’t seem to be moving.
One of the other women is moving to, I wasn’t sure, help the other one suck him off?
Nope, she grabs the girl under the shoulders and pulls her off the guys johnson and I hear horrible coughing and the girl lands on her back. The guy’s member is at full mast as he bursts out crying.
The guy starts muttering something about how he almost killed her. He’s balling. Johnson is still out and waving around.
The girl / woman is on the floor and coughing but one of the other ‘nurses’ tries to give her mouth to mouth.
Far as I could tell I think the head giver passed out sucking the guy and choked on his member but was out so cold she was just going to die.
So someone tries to do CPR on the now conscious woman and ms jobgiver doesn’t want (or need it), so they start fighting/wrestling on the ground and the chanting starts again.
Dude is still crying with his mini me out but now he’s standing over them yelling ‘don’t fight over me’
Now this is all during the day, and there are other workers on shift cause the place doesn’t shut down just cause of the party. So in burst a couple of sober nurses to help. Someone had radioed them for help cause of the person choking.
They burst in and yell ‘what is going on!?’ And then the dude with his thing out turns around and faces them, and both scream and run out of the room.
Good times!”
All Time Wild Parties
“Worked in a warehouse for a while, we had regular ‘awards nights’ where we’d all get messed up and hand out stupid awards like driver of the year for the person who had the worst forklift accident, or who crashed a work car. Other things of note:
Doing lines with the boss off his desk every party
Married co-workers banging in the car park
The cleaner getting wrapped in packing tape by 3 guys
Having forklift races in the isles of the warehouse, forklifts being driven by guys who are plastered
Using forklifts to lift each other to the roof of the warehouse
I don’t miss my old job but lord I miss the parties.”
Who Would Do That?
“I used to work for a big bank. We had a little potluck for Christmas, and long story short about two hours later, someone pooped in the bathroom and smeared it literally, and I mean literally, all over the bathroom stalls. The wall, the stall door handle, the toilet sensor; absolutely everywhere. It looked like a XXL Hershey bar stepped on an IED.
We never did quite catch the elusive poop handle bandit. Legend says he’s still out there, ravaging the latrines of financial institutions to this day.”
Sounds Like A Pretty Weird Place To Work
“Early in my career I was in a miracle situation. I worked for a small technology company that was rapidly exploding to a big company. We had a license to print money.
The sales team was a bunch of Armani dressed, testosterone fueled, single 20 somethings who were making too much money too early in life. We were aggressive hunters and the company treated all the staff very well. Including admin, support, service, accounting, everyone.
It didn’t matter what position you were in, you benefited in the success. For example if there were company parties at the best restaurants and bars, everyone was invited. The company even sent everyone on a weekend ski trip.
This caused some problems. There was significant interoffice activities and lots of marriages failed. It was hard if your attractive wife worked all day with very successful and aggressive people her same age while she was married to an average Joe.
At a Christmas party, an average Joe husband fully took advantage of the open bar and started to make snarky comments to other members of the staff who he had heard stories about. His insecurities came out.
The owner saw what was going on and came over and quietly asked the couple to leave, offering to pay for the cab. Average Joe then took a swing at the owner, barely connecting.
A scrum formed, and he was walked out the door, with his wife following in tow. She was obviously embarrassed and upset.
The weeks following all the staff supported her, telling her it wasn’t a big deal. She left her job a couple of months later, and she left her husband a couple of months after that.”
Caught In The Act
“This one is from three years ago, it was one of those yearly offsites with a large bunch of people. Presentations and a lot of bla bla from the managers through the day and then drinks and party in the night. As the team wasn’t very large even the support functions like HR, admin had been invited, so yes all in all it was an everyone knows everyone kind of party.
So come 7:30 in the evening and the party starts, the drink flows like water and men, women are equally getting sloshed, I am a teetotaler and a complete bore (for my fellow party-philic friends) so by 9:30, I decide to retire early. As I am walking to the room I run into our junior HR lady who had just arrived, dressed in a red shorter than usual dress she asks me, ‘why so early, god you are such a bore,’ well I smile and go to my room.
One week later…
At the coffee machine I am with a friend of mine who had just returned after a week off, and the conversation shifts to the off-site he casually mentions that the junior HR lady (let’s call her Anita) got seriously sloshed and umm you know did some stuff. I obviously ask, did you hear it or see it, taken aback he says ‘no it was all the next day morning breakfast discussion,’ and asks where I was to miss out this important bit of breakfast brainstorm, I, a bit taken aback, realized that I had to prep for a presentation so was up early in the convention center and missed the story completely.
So apparently, the lady got really inebriated and then found a semi steady fully pervy manager (for convenience sake lets call him ‘Jim,’ who was in my team) who until that time had tried to hit on two women and in the process had been slapped (in public), so yes his creepiness had peaked when he found a hammered and more than willing Anita on the dance floor. Obviously both decided to do a provocative dance in front of everyone, if that wasn’t all they further went ahead and did the recreational procreation in the shared villa in the common area (long after everyone had gone to sleep), and quite stupidly forgot to get dressed and clean up and simply passed out. Another lady manager wakes up in the morning and finds Anita and Jim full birthday suit on the sofa.
Of course the lady who discovered Romeo and Juliet (Anita and J) freaks out and shouts so her roommate also comes upon this piece of deviant art, and she yells as well, by now Romeo and Juliet are completely awake and hastily dorne the remnants of the ripped clothes (buttons gone, soft clothes torn etc) and run off into their respective villas.
So Anita on the way back (in the car) decides to mount a counter offensive to claw back some dignity and asks, in the car, ‘Hey did someone hear about the guy and girl (from some other branch) who apparently were rumored to be seen doing the naughty last night?’ The only problem being the ladies who discovered the lovers in their glory were in the same car and let out a huge laugh, of course the topic wasn’t discussed further.
Since then Jim has always maintained that he hooked up with the first lady who discovered ‘him and Anita.’ Of course, this version came out only after that lady left the company and moved outside the country (not to mention this was also the person who had slapped Jim publically), as for Anita she kept insisting in corridor conversations how people from the other office couldn’t keep their pants on at such offsites.”
That Was A Hurricane
“‘I told you so.’ – Me
‘Ashley (me), you were right about Fanny.’ A completely self-righteous ‘Peter Griffin’ giggle escaped my throat as I could hear my boss’s heavy, erratic breathing on the other end of the phone early that Sunday morning. He had just walked me through the events of the late-night (post) holiday party that I unfortunately missed due to overindulgence of the open bar. For weeks, I had warned my superiors that something nefarious was likely going to happen. And for weeks I was told that ‘everything is going to be fine’ and ‘don’t worry about it, it’s a night of celebration anyways.’ Much to his horror and my pure joy, the events were replayed in beautiful melody to my ears early that morning after said events occurred.
Let’s rewind for a minute and get a good picture of all the players involved.
Ashley:
Myself and self-renowned future seeing-prophet – ala Nostradamus. Ok, maybe not a prophet, but I trust my gut and it’s gotten me through quite a few jams. I am very good at reading people and social situations. I can pinpoint a bad apple long before many trusting people do. But, that is my burden to carry.
I had been with my company for over five years and had seen/done most everything. That is, until ‘Fanny’ was hired on to my team.
Fanny:
You know that kind of girl that takes selfies in the bathroom turned around so their butt is facing the mirror and then take a ‘buttie’ while sporting a duck face? You know the type.
This girl CRAVED attention. On her birthday, she would call everyone on her contact list (for work) and demand why they haven’t wished her a happy birthday yet and would call back continually until she received the well wishes she demanded. She had a big personality and came off as a genuine and even an overly nice person to the regular Joe. She was also very sensitive and emotional to criticism of any kind.
Anyone that complimented or told her that ‘her hair looked adequate’ would receive the most adoration from her. She ran through a few office ‘relationships’ (I call it flings, but others consider that a relationship I guess) and started getting tagged as the office bicycle very early. This trend continued on through our customer contacts. Months after the incident, we would learn that she had upwards of five customer ‘boyfriends.’ Many of these boyfriends were married with children and risking it all for a little slice of Fanny heaven. She destroyed at least two families that we know of.
Management:
Nathan and Hilary, dubious at best. To give them credit, they are very accepting and trusting people. Too trusting.
Fanny put the blinders on them both very quickly and with ease. Distracting them by her charm and sensitivity, she could do no wrong! She was the ideal employee and Nostra-Ashley is just trying to start drama that doesn’t exist.
Pre-Holiday Party:
Fanny announces to the group that she invited Charlie (our customer contact) as her date to the holiday party. It all being a ruse that he wanted to come up North to go hunting and the dates lined up perfectly for him to attend our party! Yay us, how fun will this be?!
Sirens are going off in my head. Loud, promiscuous sirens blaring. I had expected these two had an unprofessional relationship brewing inside and outside of work based on the phone and email conversations flowing back and forth.
Now, I am the face of the account with Fanny working the day-to-day operations. I knew this would not look good if my higher level company contacts got wind of this. How would I explain this? Can someone say CONFLICT OF INTEREST? I alerted both managers to the impending dumpster fire that this inevitably would lead to and was told they’d ‘look into it.’
Let us note that Charlie left his young wife and son at home to go ‘hunting.’
Holiday Party:
As with any open bar, the entire office began getting sloshed. Fanny and her tribe of selfie taking, short tight dress wearers strut in ‘ready to partaaaaaaayyyyyy ohhhemmgeeeee.’
The evening started off pretty well – speeches, awards and food with DJ dance party to follow. As soon as the music started, the dirty dancing ensued. It was quite clear very early on that Charlie was not there for a hunting trip as he grinded all over Fanny. Charlie made his reputation quite known as he had multiple run-ins with co-workers in the bathroom saying ‘he’s hitting that’ and ‘my wife thinks I’m up here hunting lol’ comments.
Fanny was sure to not leave anyone out of her dirty dancing, grabbing many of her previous coworker flings to grind while Charlie was at the bar. Charlie’s non-sobriety and jealousy increased to threat level midnight by the time the open bar closed.
But ALAS! Management has decided to continue the party at a local bar that reserved the upstairs for us. Luckily or not so luckily for boss Nathan that his best friend was the general manager of the establishment. Our company has since been banned at this establishment.
All employees that were still upright and alive, staggered to the bar for afties. This is where the evening really ramped up. Unfortunately for myself, the open bar fairy took me home before I could witness the drama with my own eyes. But alas dear readers and writers, I have gathered all the witness statements and recorded the following as true (ish) events. Do you remember when Angela from ‘The Office’ TV show went around and got everyone’s statement from when Dwight pepper sprayed Roy for trying to hit Jim? Yeah, that was me the next Monday.
Midnight. Eyesight blurred and decision-making questionable.
3rd Party Perspective:
Fanny’s flirtation expanded to almost every male that was still alive. A former ‘flame’ started giving her the attention she so desired. Unfortunately for Flame, he came to the party with his own date. Poor girl had no idea what was about to hit her.
Charlie verbally confronts Flame about his flirtation with Fanny and how it’s verging on the side of ‘inappropriate.’ Takes one to know one I guess. Fanny, ignorant to what is going on around her, continues her flirtations. I think she enjoyed the attention she was getting from both men and upped the ante, personally.
Tempers flare and bottles begin exploding on the walls behind everyone. Flame and Charlie are chucking empty bottles at each other from across the room while slowly stumbling towards each other for the full-frontal altercation. Bystanders have described the scene similar to monkey’s throwing feces at each other due to the general sloppiness of both brawlers. Those capable intervened and threw themselves in between the two barrel-chested gorilla men beating their chests. Punches thrown, counter attacks thwarted and two idiots are now pinned to the ground.
The entire company was thrown out of the bar with Flame’s date disappearing into the night, alone. I often think of her and how she handled the altercation. Poor girl.
After multiple calls with management and HR the following Sunday, Monday rolled around and the shame was a beautiful thing to witness. Management did not dish out justice as I would have wished (with the hammer of THOR!) but most everything worked out in the end. By the time Fanny left the company some months later, we learned about the complete devastation left in her wake. Two divorces and multiple lives shattered later, she leaves unscathed to commit her shenanigans at another company.
Hide your boyfriends! Hide your husbands! Hurricane Fanny is still brewing.”
Why Why Why
“When I was in my early 20s, I was working at a restaurant with the world’s nicest and most innocent group of guys. One weekend, we threw a bachelor party for one of the waiters who was marrying his high school sweetheart. Drinks! Female entertainers at someone’s house! Crazy!
We all hooted and hollered when the entertainment tore off their clothes and walked around the room to each guy. We whistled and giggled when the bachelor got a personal show with whip cream. Good times!
As the girls were ending the show, they asked if anyone had any requests before they packed up. One of the cooks, who was at least 20 years older than most of us, walked over and had a serious, five-minute conversation with the girls. He then turned to us and said that we all had to cough up $300 if we wanted to see something special. Without hesitation, we handed the money to the girls and sat back in anticipation for what was sure to be a lovely show!
He laid down on the floor and both girls peed and pooped on him for the next five minutes. Guys were gagging. The bachelor started crying. I screamed in terror. One guy walked over to them and yelled, ‘Why, Why, Why???’ It was if the devil himself, in mere seconds, had snatched the innocent souls of 15 naive idiots.
The show ended in silence. The girls freshened up and left with their ‘ride.’ The cook slid on his jacket over his soiled clothes, walked out into the cold night and never returned for his shifts.”