AT&T's fridge even more rotten than its 3G streaming limits
By Thomas Ricker 
posted May 13th 2009 4:31AM
posted May 13th 2009 4:31AM
Look we're all guilty of generating a little fridge-fuzz now and again. A practice that's disgusting at home turns downright antisocial at the office. Or near-fatal if you work at AT&T's San Jose office where a dirty fridge sent 7 people to the hospital yesterday. The incident started when an office refrigerator was found unplugged and stuffed with moldy food. While cleaning the fridge, the combination of chemical solvents with neatly labeled cups of rotting yoghurt and pork-roast parfaits created a cloud of toxic fumes that prompted a 911 call and the dispatch of a hazmat team. 28 people in total were treated for nausea and vomiting. AT&T: More SARS in more places.
If it's one of those fridges that has an ice-maker and a circuit board, it's clearly defined as a CPU and thus the employees aren't going to be compensated for their healthcare. It's in their terms of service, look it up.
Typical for California. The trashy state it is.
Ok, I'll bite. I did a quick Google search and the only thing relevant that came up was your post. So, here it is: "Why, might I ask, would these employees not be compensated for their health care?"
The employer should foot the bill due to workers' comp. But, even if they fight it, health insurance would kick in.
Back to worker's comp: these employees were injured as a result of simply being at work. You are suggesting that AT&T has an employee contract clause specifically denying liability when its refrigerators are classified as CPUs. Yet, AT&T provides these "CPUs" with the only reasonable use being as refrigerators. IANAL, but it seems that this ground is shaky enough to nullify such a provision in a contract, if it exists as you claim.
@ bondsbw
I think you missed the joke, I believe it to be a reference to At&T not letting sling player on the iPhone work over the 3G network.
"Smartphones like the iPhone to be personal computers in that they have the same hardware and software attributes as PCs, Applications like this, which redirect a TV signal to a personal computer, are specifically prohibited under our terms of service"
Yep, I did...
The problem is, it's so believable that they would try something that boneheaded. Seriously had me fooled.
After I found out it was a joke, I laughed SO hard...possibly the best joke ever posted on Engadget. Ever.
SARS-Shit Arse Reception and Services
I live in a college town and a local radio station used to have a contest for most disgusting apartment/house on campus, and often times, the fridge was the highlight of this contest with things growing out of control... maybe AT&T has come up with a good strategy to win if they start the contest up again... just unplug ahead of time!
Don't you love muppets who when switching off all plugs and power, decides to switch off the fridge too...
Our boss decided it was time to deal with our fridge, and warned everyone that on Friday night he would be cleaning it out completely.
Monday lunchtime I went to get something to eat, and discovered he had thrown out a new, unopened box of 20 hotpockets I had in the freezer.
He was unrepentant when I asked him why.
Microwave food genocide!
God dammit that picture is hideous..
that is one ugly dude.
We're so pretty, oh so pretty...
VACANT.
that is one rotten dude, johnny rotten
not a dude, its an IT!!
Its and information technology???
I believe that is . . . ahem . . . John Joseph Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, hense the headline.
and knowing Mr Rotten he'll try and charge royalties for usage of the image :p
I remember a carton of milk that had remained in a fridge at work for about 2-months and I made the mistake of sniffing it to see if it was OK (not realising, of course, that it had been in there for so long) and almost passed out from the stench. However, AT&T clearly have me beat on this one since no HazMat team was required.
The weird thing is the person cleaning it didn't fall sick cuz couldn't smell anything. Just goes to show the nose is more a curse than a blessing.
AT&T: Your well-being. Destroyed.
I bet they thought the iphone in the fridge would keep it clean.
What does that even mean?
Hey guys, everyone recognizes me by my icon right?
FFFFFUUUU--
Mr. Ricker - this post was too funny, thanks for the morning laugh. More SARS in more places... ha! Already off to a good day.
I agree ... that line was full of win!
+1
Ricker, you clever bastard.
-jp
Plus "yoghurt". Made me feel all Euro-special.
Ok, I'll bite. I did a quick Google search and the only thing relevant that came up was your post. So, here it is: "Why, might I ask, would these employees not be compensated for their health care?"
The employer should foot the bill due to workers' comp. But, even if they fight it, health insurance would kick in.
Back to worker's comp: these employees were injured as a result of simply being at work. You are suggesting that AT&T has an employee contract clause specifically denying liability when its refrigerators are classified as CPUs. Yet, AT&T provides these "CPUs" with the only reasonable use being as refrigerators. IANAL, but it seems that this ground is shaky enough to nullify such a provision in a contract, if it exists as you claim.
Ignore that... reposted in the correct thread.
Engadget... for the love... please fix this commenting system.
OMG IM IN LOVEW THOMAS RICKER
Johnny Lydon is awesome! I met him once, and he's one of the most intelligent and sarcastic and skeptical people I've ever met.
Kudos for the Johnny Lydon AKA Rotten pic.
Johnny Rotten is watching '2 Girls 1 Cup'.
This was actually a planted biological weapon, to be used only in extreme cases where the secretive AT&T spy room was about to be exposed.
Interesting fact: this was not in downtown San Jose. I rode by it on my way to lunch; it happened at the AT&T Labs office on River Oaks Place in northern San Jose. I asked one of the employees what had happened and when she told me I didn't believe her.
There were, however, at least 3 firetrucks and another 3 ambulances on the scene. Gogo San Jose emergency response.
Thanks for clearing that up, haha.
I wonder what caused all that?
Negligence, laziness, apathy, pride.
- Too negligent to know that it's everyone's responsibility to contribute to cleaning the fridge at work. Get off yer butt and throw away your own leftovers! And yeah, store manager - that means you, too!
- Too lazy and apathetic to clean it... or even plug it in! (Don't refrigerators have to be plugged in these days?)
- Prideful enough that they think it's beneath them to do so.
Oh well. No type of attitudes there that can't be cured by a HAZMAT team, blowin' a few chunks, and a little trip to the ER for more than two dozen people!
How embarrassing.
Lesson learned... hopefully.
This was at AT&T, so I can only assume there was a SMOP* in place to deal with the situation, but no one could find it. The story went something like this...
1) Employee discovers the offensive refrigerator, complains to co-worker
2) Co-worker recommends cleaning it up, but quickly realizes this would cut into designated break time. Both go back to work and forget about break room incident.
3) 2 days later, first employee complains, again to co-worker. Both take no further action.
4) 2 weeks later, at staff meeting, the office PITA brings up the state of the break room refrigerator. Local supervisor promises to contact "facilities" to have them clean it out. Supervisor promptly gets an important message on BB and forgets about complaint.
5) several days later, PITA complains to the shop steward. Shop steward storms into the HR office and demands that something be done about the deplorable state of the break rooms in this facility.
6) HR sends email to facilities manager, who is on vacation for 2 weeks.
7) Facilities manager gets back from vacation and replies to the HR manager -Facilities is not responsible for keeping the break room refrigerator clean.
8) HR forwards message back to shop steward and copies supervisor.
9) supervisor reads the response at the next staff meeting and tells employees to clean out fridge.
10) another 2 weeks goes by with no action taken. Finally, the supervisor begins to clean out the fridge himself, along with several butt kissing employees. They decide to mix bleach and ammonia to kill off the smell and proceed to clear out the office.
*SMOP: Service Method or Procedure
Wow! Tommy, slow tech news day?
" the combination of chemical solvents with neatly labeled cups of rotting yoghurt and pork-roast parfaits created a cloud of toxic fumes"
It had nothing to do with the cleaning spray mixing with the rotten food. Apparently the idiot involved actually *MIXED* various cleaning agents together which is clearly an intelligent thing to do. How does a person get through life without knowing you can't mix cleaning sprays?
from what the local new post stated the worker who was cleaning out the fridge also had surgery for allergies... never smelled a thing!!
To top that off someone grabbed a can of air freshner and far too late in their crop dusting run realized it was some sort of spot cleaning agent for carpeting... hence the hazmat crew.
and I love the "Mosre SARS in More Places" comment!! My day is now complete!