A 39-year-old programmer in Shenzhen, China, identified under the pseudonym Xing Zhi, died while sitting on a toilet at his workplace, but authorities denied classifying his death as work-related because he had never actually reached his desk or turned on his computer that day, according to Dexerto. Xing arrived at his company’s parking garage at 8:56 AM on April 23 and clocked in, then asked a security guard for directions to a second-floor bathroom. He entered the bathroom at approximately 9:01 AM but never emerged, despite his actual workstation being located on the 11th floor. At 11:28 AM, he was discovered unconscious and slumped on the toilet. His employer administered an AED and called emergency services, but a doctor ultimately stopped resuscitation efforts and pronounced him dead at 12:50 PM. Reports describe the death as sudden, though a specific medical cause has not been publicly disclosed.

Xing’s employer provided his family with an undisclosed amount of compensation and separately applied to have his death formally recognized as work-related, but the Shenzhen Human Resources and Social Security Bureau rejected that classification on July 3 in a decision communicated to his wife, identified under the pseudonym Liu Nian. The bureau’s written decision stated Xing’s death did not satisfy the requirements of Articles 9 or 10 of the Guangdong Province Regulations on Work-Related Injury Insurance. In a recorded conversation Liu provided, a bureau employee reportedly explained the reasoning directly: Xing had gone to the second-floor bathroom without first reaching his 11th-floor workstation or performing any actual work tasks that day. Liu has since requested a formal administrative review of the decision, and has pointed to dashcam records showing her husband typically stayed roughly three hours past his scheduled finishing time, often leaving around 9 PM during that April period, evidence she appears to be using to argue he was a consistently dedicated employee whose death shouldn’t be dismissed on a technicality.

Under Guangdong’s workplace injury regulations, a sudden death can be classified as work-related if it occurs during working hours at the employee’s work position, or within 48 hours of unsuccessful medical treatment following such an incident. Zhang Jian, a lawyer with Beijing Zhuohao Law Firm, argued that using the bathroom constitutes a necessary physiological need directly tied to employment, and that workplace bathrooms should therefore reasonably be considered an extension of an employee’s work position rather than a disqualifying location. Notably, a comparable case reached the opposite conclusion in 2024, when a Guangdong court upheld a decision classifying a chef’s death as work-related after he collapsed while using a workplace bathroom, suggesting Xing’s specific circumstances, particularly the fact that he hadn’t yet reached his own floor or begun any tasks, may be the decisive factual distinction driving the different outcome. If Xing’s appeal ultimately succeeds, his family could become eligible for funeral and dependent benefits alongside a lump-sum payment of 1,130,040 yuan, approximately $165,000.

OUTRAGE: A 39-Year-Old Programmer In Shenzhen, China, Identified As Xing Zhi, Died While Sitting On A Toilet At His Workplace, But Authorities Denied Classifying As Work-Related Because He Never Reached His Desk Or Turned On His Computer 🤯💥