Employee Found Dead in Cubicle After Apparently Dying There Days Earlier

You can clock in any time you like, but you can never leave.

Final Swipe

In a late-stage capitalist tragedy, an Arizona bank employee was found dead in her cubicle on Tuesday — after clocking in on a Friday and apparently never clocking back out.

As Arizona's KPNX local broadcaster reports, Tempe police are investigating the death of 60-year-old Wells Fargo employee Denise Prudhomme after her body was found at her desk last week, and officials believe she may have died there up to four days prior.

Building records indicated that Prudhomme had scanned into the Wells Fargo corporate office where she worked at around 7 am on August 16 and never scanned back out. Police came to the scene on August 20 after security workers found her unresponsive, and she was declared dead upon arrival.

With her cubicle on the building's third floor away from the main aisle, it seems that the unfortunate worker may have died at some point during the work day that Friday and was quite literally left to rot over the weekend before anyone noticed.

What's worse, several employees had — per an anonymous employee who spoke to the local NBC affiliate — complained of a foul odor coming from the area surrounding her desk, but it was presumed to have come from faulty plumbing.

Indirect Address

While most of the people in Predhomme's office reportedly work remotely, the same concerned worker told KPNX that the bank employs 24-hour security and that Prudhomme's body should have been discovered sooner.

"That's the scary part," the employee told the news outlet. "It's negligence in some part."

Tempe police have not released many details about Prudhomme's cause of death beyond saying they don't currently suspect any foul play was involved. Nevertheless, this is a chilling cautionary tale that, per the anonymous employee who spoke to the NBC affiliate, Wells Fargo hasn't spoken to employees about.

"I'm just wondering," the worker said, "why they didn't formally address employees about it?"

In a statement to KPNX, the bank said that it is "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague at our Tempe office," and directed staff to speak to its Employee Assistance Consulting service for support.

Boilerplate statement aside, the lack of dignity in Prudhomme's death is shocking, and likely going to be remembered by the workers who found her and who have spoken out, albeit anonymously.

"It's really heartbreaking and I'm thinking, 'What if I were just sitting there?'" a Wells Fargo associate told the news station. "No one would check on me?"

More on workplace tragedy: Death Reported At Tesla Factory