[conservatism_IS_compassion]

You get used to it, and chatting with those around you was allowed and friendly.My career was mostly in that environment. “Get used to it?” I once noticed a bit of commotion, and asked about it.

They told me that Joe had had a heart attack, and been carted off a half hour ago. I didn’t know whether to feel bad about not being affected by my co-worker’s distress - or good about having been engrossed in what I was doing and not having noticed it.

[roadcat]

They told me that Joe had had a heart attack, and been carted off a half hour ago.

Ouch, sorry to hear of your co-worker's distress. I know the stress that can happen around the office. One Friday I was going over code with a manager and bid goodbye in the evening; we had been working closely for a week on some mainframe system coding. Monday I came in and was told he died of a heart attack, found on the weekend in his easy chair; he was only 47 years old. We worked in an open office environment. We would code clist programs that would interrupt someone else's dumb terminal with a joke and watch the receiving worker's reaction. (Clists are IBM mainframe terminal code.)