Besuited cubicle monkey trashes office Those among you who've ever been forced to work in a cubicle farm will certainly enjoy this CCTV footage of what happens when a suit reaches breaking point: And here's the action from another angle, captured on a mobile phone: Splendid. There are suspicions among sceptical netizens that this rampage may be a put-up, but …
The CCTV footage looks pretty real, the responses of the co-workers (and the alleged security guy) look fairly authentic as well. The mobile phone footage enhances this to a point, except towards the final two-man deak takedown, either the alleged perp was knackered as he flapped at the two guys, or they hadn't practiced that bit before. I would go with knackered, that was a fairly heavy burst of activity for a suit.
The thing I noticed was the use of CRT and not TFT. Either the footage is old, or the company has a poor IT budget and hasn't replaced the equipment for ages. No wonder the man flipped. And no wonder he could fend the security guy off with one of those old heavy keyboards.
I hate open plan offices unless they are really well planned. That place looks too small and untidy.
His is the straightjacket.
I had a similar incident a few years ago where a bloke was fired and decided it would be a good idea to pick up a large plant from its pot and throw it around the office. The soil went everywhere, mainly on my PC as I was sitting closest to the plant at the time. I also had the only female person there sitting with me for training at the time!
Needless to say he was escorted off the premises by security!
Given the way he pulls both CRTs forward I'm inclined to say that the power and VGA cables are tied to the desk behind the monitors. This negates the need to screw in the VGA cable since it won't fall out under normal use unless the monitor is moved.
Heart because love is all he really needed.
The last desk he's on sure looks like there's a cable and the second one he picks up he struggles with first - possibly pulling the cords out?
I've worked in similar offices before and never fastened the VGA cables in as they seemed to play musical chairs and I was in most weekends swapping them round - sure it's not the only office that did nor I the only it bod to not fasten the cables.
Is odd how he's center framed for the CCTV camera to start with though and never moves out of frame to the right or front.
Wonder what the boss was saying though - here's the forecast for next quarter and by the way i boffin your wife...
actually, looking at our monitors here, none of the video leads are screwed in to the connectors at the back
i don't see why a quick enough grab of the monitor wouldn't cause both the video lead and the power cable to fall out the back so it'd be easy to lob it across the office
could easily be the same in that office
still, fake or not, it's impressive he manages to throw that many CRTs and all those cubicle dividers
I too was a bit sceptical about if it was faked - however, the quality of the picture that I see doesn't allow me to know for certain if there are cables attached or not. I've seen plenty of places where the monitor was attached without the screws being tightened up so that doesn't surprise me either. As for there being CRT monitors, there are very many places that have yet to replace these.
Although the immediate reaction is to laugh (and it is a perfectly normal human reaction), I don't find it too funny - I've had to deal with people that suffered stress related breakdowns and one where the person had a major chemical imbalance that needed regular medication, but had forgotten to take it.
It can be quite frightening for people that are not used to seeing someone lose it so badly. It's also quite difficult to know the best way to deal with it - and it can also cause problems for those staff that witness such an event. OK in those cultures that naturally talk about these sorts of things, but not so easy when your lip has to be stiff, don't cher know.
"There but for the grace of God..."
Sadly there are plenty of them still in my office. Outnumbering TFT about 200 to 1 (except in the senior management suites, of course), so I wouldn't rule out anything on that basis... Still a lack of any visible cabling raises a question mark or two.
If it was a fake, kudos to the stuntwoman that copped the monitor...
Disgrunted Asus 900 owner on discovering that his battery was not as large as expected.
Monitor cables - well unless they were never screwed in and using the apple magnetic power plugs... and 17" CRT's were light weight...
It might have been 'staged' - but not necessarily amongst actors... perhaps it was a candid camera thing.
I dunno about that one. The power lead on most monitors (especially older ones) will come out at the slightest provocation and the number of times I've come across a colleague's "monitor problem" that's turned out to be down to Desktop support being too sodding lazy to fasten the screws on the signal lead which has subsequently worked loose is too high to count.
The fact that he can apparently pick up and chuck a monitor without it dragging the system unit with it could just as easily be down to crap installation as it could be to faking the footage.
Still reckon it's a fake though.
For anyone behaving that crazily he would have barely noticed the minimal resistance likely to have been offered by the cable screws, which really wouldn't have stopped him. The cable connections would have disconnected at the weakest point - in my view either threads stripped or bolts sheared right off, whichever goes first - if not ripping the wires and sheath right out of the connector. Come on folks - someone prepared to fling heavy CRT monitors around the office at co-workers ain't going to be stopped by a couple of little 3mm screws.
As many have pointed out, there do not seem to be cables attached to the monitors. Easily pulled out doesn't answer it either, the power I can see as it is usually "plugged" at the monitor end, but the video cable is pretty much 100% permanently attached at the monitor, making it almost impossible to pick up and throw with such ease.
The woman that he throws it towards, doesn't take it in the head, she clearly braces herself with her arms ready in front of her as he throws it at the monitor on her desk and she does a spectacular job of making it look like she took one in the noggin.
Also, most of the "extra's" just stand around or move around somewhat casually to the sides, in a real work environment if someone melted down like that, there would be a mass exodus from the room.
Last point, never saw an office where every window covering was down completely. Often they would be at varying levels of open/closed, that would make the lighting difficult for the shoot though.
Of course, I could be wrong, if so, apologies to the lady with the dented head.
--Pete
You should be issued with a one-time permit to completely lose it and trash your office once in your career.
I could have used it a couple of weeks back when our retarded on-line system lost 2 hours of my work on a Monday morning.
After all, monitors and potted plants are much cheaper than extended psychiatric therapy.
Power lead - okay - fair enough, they pop out for bugger all reason but... I tend to tidy the cables away in such an anally retentive manner that pulling the mouse too hard makes the speakers wobble. I've noticed too that the screwing in bit is at the back of the base unit, and normally I find that at the back of the monitor the signal lead is a permanent fixture, not something with a "screw it in/leave it loose" option.
I think the "no cables" brigade is off base here, one of the monitors he throws clearly drops sharply as soon as he throws it, and seems to dangle over a cube wall. As others point out, many times the VGA cable isn't fastened and power cables are designed to detach from either end. I freaked when I heard the loud "BZZZT!" in the cell phone coverage. I wondered if they'd hit the guy with a taser. Then someone bends towards him again (clear view blocked by the other guy catching the action on a phone) and there's that "BZZZT!" again. Yup, I think so.
The only question left is: who added the subtitling to the CC footage?
You notice nobody took him down until security got there.
If that was my office I would beat the guy unconcous with his own bloody chair.
Now in my office everyone but managers has crt's and old slow PC's. The managers have TFT's and brand new laptops. I work for an international IT reseller which just goes to show.
I felt like that >90% of the time when I was office bound (only about 50% of the time now I am free range).
Have to love the bit where he goes for the photocopier with the coat/hat stand thing. When the percussive maintenance fails he gives it a good old fashioned kicking.
Fake or not, love it!
At first I also agreed it looked fake because everybody pretty much just stood around and watched. But he was so incompetent: wandering around, taking several flabby kicks to remove a panel which then came imperfectly free, slipping on the desk because of leather shoes, etc. A hollywood epic would have had more planning and would have had attractive debris flying clear. It is convincing to me.
But maybe I'm just dim.
Paris 'coz normally....why else would you watch crummy web video?
Note the timestamps in the lower right.
It turns 12:11 at about :51 seconds in. The "glitch" occurs and video comes back up at 12:12 (at 1:21 in). 12:13 arrives at 2:21, suggesting that the video resumed at exactly 12:12. So that brief blackout actually lasted ~30 seconds.
Could just be a case of editing out a 30-second camera failure, but that sure doesn't do a lot to help its credibility.
That is classic, I think it looks pretty authentic.
I loved the bit in the security cam footage when he kept hitting the photocopier - one point it pathetically spurted out a sheet of paper, like it was feeling getting hit!!!
:-)
Just great!
Anybody know what supposedly started him off?? - his colleague was picking papers up off the floor for him - perhaps it was sparked by a snidey comment thrown in about his papers not being neat and tidy. I know I'd do the same if somebody told me my desk was untidy - wait - it IS untidy. AAAAARRRGGGGGHHHHH I've gone on a rampage.
On a sadder note, I would imagine shortly after that outburst, he must have ended up in a padded cell, and is currently undergoing months of rehabilitative psychotherapy.
"in a real work environment if someone melted down like that, there would be a mass exodus from the room"
Possibly not; people don't always react normally when an unusual situation occurs. It is quite normal for people to simply stand and watch - next time you pass an accident look at the number of people stood around. Or watch the news for an "incident" - same thing.
It takes people in different ways.
A friend of mine worked for the IR in a main office - she was asked to spend some time on the front desk. Second day, a man walked in and because he couldn't get what he wanted, he dragged the monitor (CRT) off her desk and started to throw stuff around. Not one person moved. I was called to go and get her later to make sure she got home OK and she was alright. But the next day 5 other staff didn't turn up as they were suffering PTSD.
@Mono Ape ; "Partitions cannot be just pulled apart with your bare hands - have a go."
Depends on how old they areand how well they are put together. We moved offices recently and the old partitions fell over without anyone touching them; only held up by the paper and staples!
If it's real it's a bit extreme. I'm not aware of any "office" area I've worked in being CCTV'd up. Factory floors, critical common corridors, warehouses and Carparks but not offices.
If it's real then I'd probably expect the company to be nailed for an unsafe working environment. Screens and chairs shouldn't be that movable? Maybe it was an episode of "The Hulk" in the making??
First I've worked in several offices where it was against the rules to raise the blinds on the windows. So lowered blinds don't seem odd.
Second, yep, most places I work now dumped CRTs, but there are a lot of places that still have them.
As for CCTVs in the offices, yep. Most offices I've worked had them, and they were "secret" In other words, unless you knew where there were (or could recognize a camera yourself) people didn't know about them. In one instance, security used them to find a clepto who was stealing small items from everyone's desk after work. Never did get my headphones back from him. grrr
With all that said, seems real enough to me.
I've got 2 of the things, one in a box and one on the desk. I also have TFT too. I'm saving the TFT for when I eventually go over to Vista. Hum. They are surprisingly easy to throw around though; when I was warehousing in a repair facility we used to see how far we could throw them into the recycling skip (which was the size of a small office). Authorising the destruction of the things was the best part of the job, as was hurling keyboards and other bits of gubbins (from the 3rd floor). TFT's make great frisbees when the stands are snapped off. Us plebs swapped a poxy 14 incher for a 19 incher that was being chucked, as there was nowt wrong with it. Happy days :)
I liked the bit where he took an axe to the photocopier.
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Watching the disarm and takedown, they clearly had some skill. They definitely had a taser - note the way he gets jabbed at 2:46 CCTV - 1:13 on the mobe, with zapping sound. The blackout could have been the system changing tapes. As for the time discrepancy, it's caused by different framerates. 120 seconds of recorded time is played back in almost exactly 90 seconds. 120s at 24 fps is 2880 frames; displaying that in 90s gives a playback speed of precisely 30 fps.
At first I was laughing, then I started thinking Jeez dude what's got so bad in your life you have to lose it like this, beat the stress out of everything around you.
I am wondering if this is fake and is a promotional video for one of those anti-stress courses that companies always try to get you to go on once a year, make sure you behave like good little worker bee's and don't fantasize about taking some of your co-workers and ramming a keyboard where the sun don't....I've gone too far haven't I? I just get me...me...urmm..you know.....
Next time listen to the language in the background. It is from the part of the world where a monitor still costs much more than a decent suit (though it could have been guessed anyway by the average obesity level especially in the female part of the office).
I does not look staged. It looks like something a pissed of Russian working for an American company that has cubicled all of their staff would do. And it probably is.
The distressed man's co-worker, the man in the white shirt, carelessly knocked a stack of papers off the distressed man's desk. As the co-worker picked up the papers, his bearing seemed to communicate a brusque and unapologetic manner. In addition, moments before the distressed worker exploded in enraged fury, the white-shirted man could be seen to pause and finger through some of the dropped papers. The first thing the stressed worker did in his outburst was to strike the white-shirted man, suggesting his fury was initally directed at him.
What a bunch of cynical old men, looking for reasons to assume it is fake!
Why can't you just accept it at face value? Out of the billions of hours of CCTV footage taken around the world, some of it is going to capture the full range of human and non-human emotions, events and disasters - some will be leaked, and some unbroadcastable.
Yes, they were speaking Russian though I can't tell what dialect. It would explain the old monitors and poor quality cctv at the time it was recorded. (Years ago I worked as a retoucher for a spot-the-ball competition with a £1m prize and was videod while I worked, but that is a special case!) Remember, this is a very different culture to what you're used to. It isn't unusual in Russia or in Eastern European countries to have CCTV running in offices. They even have or had armed security guards inside Marks & Spencers etc!
The mobile footage starts a good time after the guy loses it, presumably because it takes time for someone to realise that there might still be something worth filming, and that his mobile would do the job. The security guard also turns up after an appropriate delay.
I'm convinced it is unstaged and spontaneous. Everyone behaved naturally (even with shameful inaction) at the shock, and it is all too easy to put yourselves in their positions and criticize with hindsight. So, what would you really all do in that sudden situation with someone so unpredictable?
Having spent a little time in offices in various places throughout the good ole USSR (oh wait... didn't they get one of those marketing companies in and pay them millions to give them a makeover?) from '98 to '05, CCTV in offices is a surprisingly common thing (surprising by our standards in blighty anyway)...
As for the cables argument? I've chucked CRT monitors around enough (cleared old offices for a while too) to know it is perfectly possible to yank the cable out of the back of some, with a short sharp tug. The footage isn't clear or high definition enough to state conclusively there are or aren't any cables attached, but pulling them off the desk is easy to do unless they are bolted down. A plug socket is normally a permenent feature, and a plug in it secured better than the other end in the back of a monitor. Graphics cables also aren't a permanent fixture at the monitor end in a lot of CRT's in widespread use in Russia (cheaper I guess), from makers you won't have heard of here, and almost certainly never will either.
Even without speaking Russian (well, such a small amount it couldn't be classed as speaking it) it was pretty plain to see how stressed many of the people I spent time with were, due to such ridiculous levels of violence within Russian society (unfortunate consequence of having a state and economy run by organised crime), low wages for the vast majority, scarcity of resource - Vodka being the exception - that shit is EVERYWHERE! and GOOD! and CHEAP! :) *hic*
While our "friends" across the pond have "going postal", the Russians have a related phenomenon known as "going clerical"...
I think it's real...
Me and my colleagues watched this and laughed at "the king" today, and we joked about which one of us is it going to be. And then, about a quarter an hour later, one of them slammed the desk with his fists in frustration, and there was an odd moment of silence in the office...
that the "action" all started in exactly the center of the camera's view. And maintained it all within the camera's view as best as a fixed camera could be.
And since the camera was "deployed" properly (in a corner to show the whole room) for the "action" to occur dead center seems much too convenient.
Another attempt at a 'viral" video. I'm surprised there's not a product or movie endorsement strapped on somewhere.
If you notice, the monitors don't move freely when tossed, but stop suddenly and drop. That suggests a cable. Have a look at the CC tape, when he first throws the monitor towards the woman. It doesn't move freely.
These people were speaking Russian. I couldn't make out the words for most of it, but at one point a woman is shouting at the guy, "What do you want?"
I don't see any good point in creating a crappy film of a rampage. That would have required considerable effort by so many people, with the equipment being set up for destruction. Sure, it *might* have been faked, but I just don't see it.
Lending credibility to this, in my opinion, was the person who was using his cell phone to video the rampage - caught on the video we have here.
I vote for it being real, but of course I've been fooled before.
I'm just surprised it doesn't happen more often...
1. they sound east european to me
2. some people in this world still use CRT's right?
3. screens work perfectly fine without screwing the cables in place, which makes installation and removal quicker (and they're easier to throw)
4. ouch, that chick got a face full and she doesn't look like a stuntgirl
5. he did a damn good job screwing up that office before security came
6. there are way too many people for this to be an unpaid fake... unless if there's a huge bunch of bored friends who have some old office equipment to waste?!? in that case they did an awesome job!!
i would have knocked him to the floor within 10sec... but only because i don't like picking plant soil out of my keyboard.
...just getting the cattleprod out of my jacket pocket to join the fun.
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