It’s Halloween, so let’s hear all your stories about spooky experiences at work. Share in the comment section!
And to start us off, here are some particularly creepy stories from past years:
“I work in a 110-yo brick warehouse. On multiple occasions, the last person left in the building at night – not always the same person – has reported hearing a baby cry somewhere in the building. No source, natural or supernatural, has been discovered.”
• • • • •
“For a few years after college, I worked at a coffee shop located inside a grocery store. One morning a week, a nearby assisted living facility would bring about a half dozen residents to do their grocery shopping. Most of them would come in and head right for the coffee shop for a drink to sip as they did their shopping.
And most had a regular order, same exact thing every time; you could start making it as soon as you spotted them and have it ready by the time they reached the counter. But one guy, Neil, had a more adventurous streak and always placed a different order, sometimes decaf, sometimes regular, sometimes dairy, sometimes soy, etc., so you’d never know until he placed the order.
One morning, Neil came in and ordered a drink, paid, and went to browse the aisles while he waited. I made the drink (in a cup with his name on it), placed it on the pickup counter, and promptly forgot about it while serving other customers. Maybe 45 minutes later, I notice that Neil’s drink is still sitting there unclaimed. I looked toward the front of the store and could see the rest of the assisted living group checking out at the registers. Figuring that Neil had just forgotten to come back for his coffee, I grabbed the cup and walked to the front of the store to give it to him, but couldn’t spot him. I asked the caregiver accompanying them if Neil was already back on the bus, and she looked at me like I’d sprouted a second head.
And then informed me that Neil had died several days earlier.
If it were anyone else, I would have assumed I’d simply gone on autopilot upon seeing the other residents, and just made the regular order for someone I hadn’t actually seen come in. But he didn’t have a regular order. I’m absolutely certain I talked to him and marked up that cup with his name and order and took his money and gave him his change. To this day, I have absolutely no explanation and it still freaks me out to think about it.”
• • • • •
“I worked for a food delivery service in a large city, in an area that had been renovated/improved for tourism in the decade or two prior, and is still a very fashionable area. One night I had to make a delivery to an apartment on the third floor of a particular building, which was actually a really nice-looking place with a pretty ritzy address. The unease started when I was halfway across the lobby; it got worse in the elevator. By the time I started walking down the hall on the third floor I felt like the walls were closing in on me; my heart was pounding, and I had such an overwhelming sense of dread that I could hardly breathe. I was terrified.
I had to visit the place twice more before I asked my boss if I could please never deliver there again. Every time I had the same unease leading into terror, the same sense that something horrible was happening or going to happen. Every time I ended up practically running out of the building with tears in my eyes.
About ten years ago, I finally decided to Google the address, and search for things like “[city] murders.” I don’t remember which search led me there, but I finally found an article that mentioned the address…because there had been a pretty gory drug-related triple murder on the third floor there, back in the mid-80s or thereabouts.”
• • • • •
“There was a period of my career I was working opposite hours of the rest of the office, so it wasn’t unusual for me to be entirely alone in our building overnight. One night, well past midnight, I was dealing with a difficult technical issue and getting frustrated as I was tired and wanted to go home. After slamming my hands on my computer keyboard in frustration, I went to get a glass of water and take a break.
As I left my office, I heard someone whispering directly behind my back.
Our office at the time was a big open concept loft – I had the only fully closed off office – the rest of the floor was just a big bullpen with some half height glass walls. It took seconds to survey the entire floor end-to-end and confirm that there was no possible space anyone could be hiding.
Shortly after I sat back down at my desk I heard the whispering again. It was coming from right outside my door. The words were so indistinct I couldn’t quite make them out, but this time I got a clear impression it was English and a young, female voice. The instant I turned trying to see who was there, the voice immediately stopped.
Spooked, I turned on every light I could find. I looked over everyone’s desk to see if any computers were still on or any phones were off the hook. I even went down to the only other floor of the building to see if the downstairs tenant had decided to show up at 2 am. Of course there was no one there – and I could see from the security panel at the door that their heavy-duty alarm system was on, including the motion detectors. The front doors were locked tight, the fire escape, stairwell and bathrooms secured and empty. I was, demonstrably, the only person in the entire building.
Convinced, I went back to my office and opened my notes to refresh myself on the problem I was supposed to be solving. After a few moments of typing I suddenly heard the voice again but this time saying clear as day, ‘He’s using Microsoft Office’ – the program I had just switched to!
I turned the office upside down trying to find out what was going on. I searched filing cabinets and desks for hidden speakers, looked for concealed cameras, checked the street in front of the building (and the roof of the building opposite). All to no avail. I was starting to think I was losing my mind.
Finally after I combed every inch of the main office for a third time I conceded that, given my fully enclosed (no-window) office, and every check I had just done, there was no possible way anyone could be seeing what I was doing on my computer screen. This was clearly just a figment of my tired brain running wild.
I walked back to my desk and sat down and the voice immediately whispered, ‘Now he’s using Firefox browser’ (which, again, was true).
A light bulb suddenly went off in my brain as to what was going on – and it turned out I was correct. When I had slammed my hands on my computer in frustration earlier, three things had happened that I didn’t realize or intend:
1. My earbuds, which were still plugged into the headphone jack of my computer, slipped behind my desk.
2. I turned the volume up to its maximum level.
3. I accidentally hit the key combination to turn on the ‘voice assist’ built into my computer to dictate to the visually impaired.
So whenever I was actively typing or clicking on things, the computer was helpfully dictating everything I was doing in its computerized voice. Because the earbuds are such small speakers (and were dangling behind my desk, slowly rotating around), most of it was inaudible except for the odd word or phrase that, after reflecting off the bottom of my desk and the floor, sounded exactly like it was coming from just outside my office door. Aside from the actual names of the programs, my brain was just filling in the rest of the indistinct narration. And of course, the moment I stopped using the computer (as I would do the instant I thought I heard something) the dictation would stop … until the next time I sat down and started typing again.
I don’t think I actually ever did solve the problem I was supposed to be dealing with that night — but I figure solving one huge, impossible, mystery a night is probably good enough.
#spooky #experience #work #Manager
