DES MOINES — A 28-year-old IT professional died suddenly Friday after a female coworker asked why the office Wi-Fi was not working.
Witnesses said a look of profound despair immediately came across the face of 28-year-old Zachary Messersmith. He opened his mouth several times before quietly muttering, “It… it seems the DNS isn’t resolving,” then abruptly slurred his words and collapsed.
Trenton Fallone, a close friend of Messersmith, said he had long struggled with the modern dilemma of wanting to answer questions from women without being accused of mansplaining.
“People think it’s a simple question,” Fallone said. “They ask why the Wi-Fi doesn’t work, or why Outlook won’t open. But when you actually know the answer, it’s hard to know where the line is between being helpful and explaining too much.”
Coworkers said Messersmith briefly considered a full technical explanation, a simplified explanation, three separate disclaimers and simply saying, “I’m looking into it,” before suffering what doctors described as a catastrophic stress-induced stroke.
“He never actually answered,” the woman said. “I kept telling him I genuinely wanted him to explain it. Looking back, that probably wasn’t helping.”
The office’s internet outage was later traced to an employee who had unplugged the router to charge a phone.
A private memorial service will be held Monday, during which attendees are expected to spend approximately 45 minutes trying to determine whether explaining where the restroom is would be interpreted as patronizing.
