Though a picture of him snoozing has gone viral, Eduard Paraschivescu is anything but tired of his Internet fame.
It was only the second day of Paraschivescu’s internship at software engineering firm GSoft when, while sitting at his desk, his eyes started to feel droopy. His new co-workers quickly noticed his slumber and jumped into action.
“Apparently for the entire 25 minutes I was sleeping, they were laughing,” said Paraschivescu. “They were dropping boxes next to me. Someone apparently checked my pulse.”
To immortalize his faux-pas, a photo was taken, with as many staff as possible cramming in next to the peacefully snoring intern.
“I realized what happened and I just put my hands on my head and I’m like, I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this,” he said.
Able to laugh at himself, he soon posted the photo to Reddit. From there, it was posted in a forum called Photoshop Battles, in which users compete to edit pictures in the most creative, fun and occasionally profane way. From there, Paraschivescu found himself in numerous memes, sharing screen space with everything from The Simpsons to a mosh pit to the Oscars.
Luckily, Paraschivescu’s employers have been good sports.
“It’s one of their company statements, having fun at work,” he said.
The Concordia student has started a crowdfunding campaign, hoping to start a side business making t-shirts promoting sleeping at work.
As for himself, he says being anemic makes it easy to nod off. Still, he has no plans to mix work and nap time again.
“I’ve got a half case of Guru (energy drink) on my desk,” he said. “All the caffeine I need.”
