last day (20 days later) » 

18:42
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Q: Should I share information I have about a coworker who disappeared?

JaneDoe1337This girl from my office kind of disappeared, she hasn't been in for 4 days now. Apparently nobody has her number or details either. The one person who has her details and would know where she is (her superior), is in the hospital. Nobody knows what's up and everyone is worried. She's not the k...

Can you be 100% certain it was her playing on her battle.net account rather than a) a friend she shared the login details with our b) someone who has hacked her account? (in either case they'd probably give you a quick brush off and try to stop communication if they thought you were someone who knew the real account owner)
@PhillS No I don't think there's a way for me to make sure that's the case! I doubt it's a hacker since they also spoke my language and played he favorite game mode in favorite character, but it could always be a friend. I hadn't thought about this, if I see her online again tonight I'll try if she maybe wants to exchange discord or use voice chat to make sure.
Often times the first people to notice a missing person is their work colleagues. Usually police forces will carry out a welfare check to make sure somebody is ok. Then again, she could be on holidays and her manager is the only one who knows about it.
@user1666620 we have a roster where all the holiday days need to be listed because of the scrum effort and hours. Impromptu holidays happen rarely, but it is a possibility. Even then it's normal to send out an email to let your teammates know though.
Wouldn't her situation qualify as MIA and therefore will result in termination?
18:42
One thing is unclear to me: "The one person who has her details and would know where she is (her superior), is in the hospital.". Is it not possible to ask this person anyway?
@Isaiah3015 No one here is actively looking for ways to terminate otherwise helpful employees.
@Pipe What does your comment mean? Could you please expand? In the US, if an employee do not show up X amount of days at work without supervisor/HR approval, that would be equal to resignation.
@Isaiah3015 Surely that's up to the managers and supervisors, not something that has to be done. I'd like to believe that the company doesn't have an infinite amount of qualified, trained, and unemployed workers waiting in line, so it may not be the rational choice.
@pipe He's in the intensive care unit for a severe lung infection, we have asked him through work related channels but I don't feel comfortable asking him through personal channels since he notified everyone of not being available due to this.
@JaneDoe1337 on battlenet, rather than asking if she wants to group up, have you just directly asked "why are you not at work?"
@Isaiah3015 It depends. Different countries and companies have different laws and procedures. It is so broad that the question on it: workplace.stackexchange.com/q/111044/50529 got closed.
18:42
Apparently, according to bastion-of-condescending-articles-about-those-wacky-millenia‌​ls the WSJ, it is increasingly common for people to find a new job, simply stop going to the old one, and don't bother to you know, actually quit the old job. Seems like a good way to burn your bridges and get a bad reputation in your industry, but I suppose people have reasons. wsj.com/articles/is-it-ever-ok-to-quit-on-the-spot-146653158‌​9
These 4 words caught my eye: "(...) she's normally very social (...)" . If that's the case, how come no one has her phone number or as a friend on Facebook or something like that?
@Isaiah3015 Outside of certain workplaces where it's common for employees to just disappear without notice (and even there, people at least say they want their last paycheck), I'd hope most employers are more concerned with the welfare of their employee than declaring them MIA and terminating them. That might be where this ends up, but if someone has disappeared, it's pretty callous to jump straight to termination instead of worrying about someone as a human being.
Have you considered that she is on vacation that said supervisor approved but couldn't yet tell anyone?
As far as contact details go, HR must also have her details. They are required to keep records of who works for the company, bank account details, home address, emergency contact numbers, and so on. That's actually a major part of their job. If your team can't get hold of her, then they should formally notify HR and have them contact her.
@RaduMurzea Being social at work doesn't mean you want to socialise with your co-workers outside of work.
18:42
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2 hours later…
20:24
I can only remember one time that one of my coworkers failed to show up for work. The reason turned out to be that they had unexpectedly died.
If I were one of the missing employee's coworkers, I would definitely worry that she may have passed away too.
If she seems to be okay, I can't imagine why you wouldn't publicly share that fact, and it seems kind of cruel not to. But maybe that's just me.
People are saying that it's a privacy issue, but "I'm not dead" usually isn't private information.
If it were me, I'd send out a group email along the lines of: "I've been in limited contact with her. I haven't asked about any details, but I don't have any indication that she's not okay."

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