my co-worker keeps getting shocked at work! help!

[thresher]

Hey guys, I need help on the weirdest of off-topics! My co-worker is Russian and new to America and works in Accounting. She has to handle lots of files (big steel file cabinets) and she sits in a upholstered chair. When she gets up and puts a file in or out of the cabinet she gets shocked like a son of a bitch. I mean LOUD! Now she is conditioned like Pavlov and is terrified to even approach the file cabinet. Is there some kind of grounding strap, or grounding plate or electric something we can do to the cabinet or to her or anything? She is really scared, to the point of tears. Come on Apexer's. Someone else run across this bizarre office malady?
Thresh

[mojo]

i go through periods where i get shocked more than usual or whatever. i'd get shocked getting into the car, out of the car, touching doorknobs, whatever. i was told that when i should touch something metal to the surface before making contact. the grounding will still occur, but not with the arc to the skin.

if the cabinet is actually exposed to something that generates this you might check it out. other than that, it could just be that she moves on a carpet, has the chair, doesn't use enough fabric softeners, or whatever.


(btw...kidding on the fabric softeners :P )

[sizemic1]

Buy her a can of Static Guard available at your local grocery store in the laundry detergent section. Then spray it on her chair.
I have the same problem and this works great! I also have gotten into the habit of touching the metal cabnets with the palm of my hand. Either there's less feeling or i'm just prepared for it..either way the shocks aren't as bad.

[blueindian]

at my gym, there is a water fountain that always shocks me. not the fountain itself, but the stream of water comming out! much like sizemic1 touching the file cabinet palm first, i touch the water with my tounge first to ease the pain.

the funny part is if i touch it with the tip of my tongue, it hurts like a sonofabitch. so i have to stick it way out and let the water touch the back part of my tongue first.

i get very strange looks sometimes. i don't think it happens to anyone else.

[speedracer120]

Originally posted by blueindian
at my gym, there is a water fountain that always shocks me. not the fountain itself, but the stream of water comming out! much like sizemic1 touching the file cabinet palm first, i touch the water with my tounge first to ease the pain.

the funny part is if i touch it with the tip of my tongue, it hurts like a sonofabitch. so i have to stick it way out and let the water touch the back part of my tongue first.

i get very strange looks sometimes. i don't think it happens to anyone else.

WTF

Interesting...

[eSDee]

Maybe she should buy some new shoes? I have the same problem, only when I wear my nikes with the rubber soles.

[Nanotech9]

yes, they make anti-static floor mats you can put under her chair, and under the cabinet.

[Kim]

The same darn thing happens to me at Albertsons. Just this week I got shocked so bad I lost feeling in my arm for the rest of the afternoon.

[dbax791]

OK, I have no idea if this will work, but if she had one of those rubber jar-opener thingies could she use that to open the cab? Or maybe make her a pair of gloves out of "Bounce" dryer sheets? :P

[Cheesypuff]

I get shocked at my school all the freaking time....what I do...I take out my room key...and everything I know I'm gonna touch I touch my key onto it first...what that does is it transfers all the remaining electrons from whatever your touching to your key instead of you. So try that first

[GraingerGuy]

She could hit the cabinet before she opens it....it's what I do cause I'm also prone to being shocked. I just kinda tap the water fountain really quick and then it gets rid of the charge.