Lucy de Bruijn, a 28 year-old ad account manager, became an inspiration today for saying the words, “No worries!” so many times she blacked out.
“She went on a total bender of reassuring us that we shouldn’t be worried today,” says co-worker Kristin Wells. “It started when I called saying I’d be late for work. She immediately responded, “No worries!” which felt nice. But it got a little out of control from there.”
According to de Bruijn’s co-workers, the bonanza of reassurance continued unremittingly for the rest of the day.
After de Bruijn assured Wells she should take her time getting to work since traffic on I-95 seems pretty bad, she said “No worries!” to the delivery guy who brought her the wrong lunch order and to two employees who wanted extensions on an ad project for LaQuinta Inns & Suites.
But like a true hero, de Bruijn didn’t stop there: While she ate her turkey panini with one hand, she also texted back “no worries!” to a date who felt bad for cancelling dinner at the last minute, “no worries!!” to a friend who apologized for not returning her curling iron, and “no worries!!!” to several other friends for no absolutely reason at all until losing all sensation in her arms and legs.
De Bruijn has been a truly an inspiring force of reassurance to those who might be worried.
“By 1 p.m. she’d gently reassured us there were “no worries!” hundreds, maybe even thousands, of times,” says Diane Sayegh, another employee. “At one point it did seem like she was saying it on autopilot though, especially since her eyes had glazed over, but it felt so calming to hear her say we didn’t need to worry. We just didn’t stop her.”
De Bruijn’s employees say their manager reached blackout levels of reassurance after a PowerPoint malfunctioned.
“I probably should have worried because our client dropped us during that meeting,” says one employee. “But being told not to worry felt like slipping into a warm, comforting sauna and I wasn’t about to correct her.”
Wells suspects De Bruijn must have blacked out from saying the phrase so many times, because she kept repeating it while wandering around the boardroom without shoes as she tried eating handfuls of jalapeño pretzels, but kept missing her mouth.
Sayegh says this isn’t the first time her manager has reached toxic levels of reassurance, causing her brain to fall asleep while her mouth simply repeated the phrase “no worries!” over and over again of its own accord.
“The last time this happened, she’d been soothing everyone around her for so long she blacked out Hangover II style and ended up somewhere in Thailand, telling everyone “no worries!” on her elephant tour of Chiang Mai,” says Wells. “She stayed there in the forest for almost a year.”
Truly amazing!
Before leaving the office early to sleep off her uncontrolled spree of reassurance, she let everyone in her office know they could call her if they needed anything, then confirmed there were also “no worries!” if they didn’t.
