I know at times folks at work don’t get along and that can become quite an issue for HR & Managers etc to solve. But I don’t think I can imagine this scenario happening in any of the companies that I have worked with in my 24 years of corporate experience. A group of 15 coworkers were on an office hiking retreat where they were scaling a 14,230-foot mountain. Which sounds like a fun team building exercise till it went horribly wrong.
14 of the 15 people managed to scale the peak successfully and then instead of waiting for the 15th person to complete as is required by common-sense, courtesy and team building they left the person near the peak to attempt the climb alone. One of the first rules that was drilled into our heads when I did my mountaineering course was that no one is left behind. Even if the last person is taking forever to finish the climb we had to wait till they completed before we could leave/start back. This is a basic safety rule so that people don’t have to go through what this guy did.
The lone employee made it to the summit at 11:30 a.m., but when he tried to descend, “he became disoriented,” according to rescue officials.
Making matters worse, his colleagues descending the mountain ahead of him inexplicably collected belongings left in a boulder field to mark the path down, officials said.“In his initial attempts to descend, he found himself in the steep boulder and scree field on the northeast slopes toward Shavano Lake,” according to officials.
The man, whose name and company were not released, used his cellphone to pin-drop his location to his co-workers, who informed him that he was on the wrong route and instructed him to hike back up to the summit to get to the correct trail down, officials said.
Just before 4 p.m. local time on Friday, he sent another location pin-drop to his colleagues that he was near the correct trail.
“Shortly after that message, a strong storm passed through the area with freezing rain and high winds, and he again became disoriented, losing his cell phone signal as well,” rescue officials said.
When his colleagues didn’t hear from him, they reported him missing to Chaffee County Search and Rescue at 9 p.m., some eight-and-a-half hours after he started his descent, officials said.
To make matters worse, they waited 8 1/2 hours before reporting him as missing. It was pure luck that he survived the trip and serious charges should be laid against each of the 14 folks who didn’t think twice before leaving him at the top of a mountain.
I really want to find out the company these folks are from so that I can ensure I never work there. This shows how bad or cutthroat/toxic the office environment is as they just left him up there.
– Suramya