The worst day of work I ever had has a relevance, if somewhat obliquely, to Tinman's latest post.

I'd recently started a job and my training was going pretty well. I was happy, really enjoying myself and working out of St Albans, most of the time, though the firm had sites all over the country, and the South East especially.
One day I was asked rather suddenly to take over two sites in deepest South London that were being run by a guy I'd never met. So off I trot, via train and tube and bus to meet my mate Nick at the first site.
"We've got a bit to do.." he said over a pint with a bit of a odd expression lurking around his eyes.
I let it pass, and we planned our route. 2 sites, and two more subsidiary sites to visit.
As we neared the first Nick turns to me and says "Look, there's something I need to tell you."
I waited.
"You know, Thingy, well, err, there's a reason you're taking over for him."
"Well, I'd assumed there was..."
"Yeah..." Another long pause. I'd figured this wasn't going to be fun.
"Well," Nick said "Yesterday, Thingy did his days work, went to the supermarket, did his weeks shopping, went home and took a massive overdose. He's in intensive care."
Wasn't a lot I could say to that.
I spent the rest of the day with people asking how he was, and looking at me like I'd given him the drugs. It was horrible.

The worst thing was that he'd obviously not planned it. He'd filled the fridge with food for a week and, according to Nick, he'd seemed in fine form when he'd had a drink with the guys from work before leaving, and had seemed fine to his flatmate when he'd got in. The flatmate had then gone out for a couple of hours and found Thingy on the kitchen floor when he got back.
I don't know what happened to the guy other than he survived and was back home with his parents. He never came back to work, and wasn't mentioned much after a while.

For me, the horror of that day, and it did fill me with a horror, was that he could have done something so appalling so flippantly. Everyone was affected and it just seemed so selfish I swore I'd never do anything like that. Now when things get that bad that the thoughts enter my mind, I try to remember how people he knew looked and felt.
And it stops me.