Spooked On The Job: Your Haunted Workplaces

Was nicely haunted at work on Wednesday evening. :)

I was alone in our depot except for one L. He was waiting for his booking-off time.
L is a level-headed young man who's leaving the job today and is in the process of joining the military.

I had one more job to do so nipped out and when I came back I walked past the male toilets, from where I heard crashing and banging as if someone were manhandling furniture around. The lights were on in there, not in the Ladies' next door, and all the other depot lights were on.

I noted the noise but thought I'm not going in there, it's a bloke problem! and walked through to the mess room where I saw L.
Told him about the commotion and he went straight off to investigate. He would have been there less than two minutes after I'd walked past.

On his return after searching the area he said he'd found nothing out of place and we joked that it most have been the ghost.

I hadn't thought the banging was anything but someone messing about.
The crashing and banging is exactly what others have heard coming from that area. It's the toilets, there's no furniture in there to throw around.

Behind them is an exterior wall with a steep drop to the railway. We often hear trains go past and know how they sound; nothing like furniture removals.

Hearing the banging around and thinking Ooer, what's that? and then either looking, when it immediately stops, or putting down whatever you're carrying and going back to look and finding nothing unusual, is how it always goes. It never seems spooky at the time.

On Wednesday I thought it was a colleague who's known for sneakily breaking things when he's upset with people. He sometimes kicks a toilet seat off, always in the Ladies.
We know it's him because of when we find the damage and he has a track record. He doesn't do this when anyone's around though.

So... that's my latest work spookiness. :nods:
 
escargot said:
Hearing the banging around and thinking Ooer, what's that? and then either looking, when it immediately stops, or putting down whatever you're carrying and going back to look and finding nothing unusual, is how it always goes. It never seems spooky at the time.
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I’ve read many accounts of ghosts where people hear awful crashing and banging and then when it’s checked, there’s nothing at all out of place. I’ve mentioned it happened in the place I worked which everyone said was haunted, or rather it happened to the company next door but their office was part of the same building.

They had a lot of expensive filming equipment in the cellar and the boss was in alone one day and heard the most enormous crashing from down there. He thought he’d go down to find all his stuff fallen on the floor or off the shelves and damaged but there was not a single thing out of place. He did enquire in the shop next door and our own office in case there was damage but never found where it came from and was so sure it was the cellar that he raced down there anticipating the worse.

Noises can travel, of course. In the case of our place there was a yard behind it belonging to a furniture store; the toilets and kitchenette we all used backed onto it (the cellar was accessed from the next door’s front office) but although you could sometimes hear noises it was a thick old stone wall and very muffled, not loud and immediate sounds.

This seems to be a phenomenon that crops up pretty often in accounts of haunted places. :thought:
 
Fanari_Lloyd said:
I’ve read many accounts of ghosts where people hear awful crashing and banging and then when it’s checked, there’s nothing at all out of place. I’ve mentioned it happened in the place I worked which everyone said was haunted, or rather it happened to the company next door but their office was part of the same building.

They had a lot of expensive filming equipment in the cellar and the boss was in alone one day and heard the most enormous crashing from down there. He thought he’d go down to find all his stuff fallen on the floor or off the shelves and damaged but there was not a single thing out of place. He did enquire in the shop next door and our own office in case there was damage but never found where it came from and was so sure it was the cellar that he raced down there anticipating the worse.

Noises can travel, of course. In the case of our place there was a yard behind it belonging to a furniture store; the toilets and kitchenette we all used backed onto it (the cellar was accessed from the next door’s front office) but although you could sometimes hear noises it was a thick old stone wall and very muffled, not loud and immediate sounds.

This seems to be a phenomenon that crops up pretty often in accounts of haunted places. :thought:
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Yup, in my last workplace there were various lively phenomena including random loud crashes.
As it was a gym a bang like that would be put down to some prat dropping a weight.

When it happened before or after closing time and there was nobody around to be crashing the weights we staff would give each other knowing glances. :nods:
 
The only time we've heard loud bangings and crashings from a deserted warehouse it turned out to be a rat that had got itself stuck underneath a cardboard box and was ambulating its way around said warehouse, bumping into metal racking and backstock trolleys. If the cause hadn't been discovered (and released from its boxy prison), everyone would have sworn that our warehouse was haunted. Nothing was out of place because the rat hadn't dislodged anything, just banged and crashed amid everything on the floor, there would only have been an oddly placed empty cardboard box, if the rat had escaped by itself and vanished into the dark depths, the way they do.
 
catseye said:
The only time we've heard loud bangings and crashings from a deserted warehouse it turned out to be a rat that had got itself stuck underneath a cardboard box and was ambulating its way around said warehouse, bumping into metal racking and backstock trolleys. If the cause hadn't been discovered (and released from its boxy prison), everyone would have sworn that our warehouse was haunted. Nothing was out of place because the rat hadn't dislodged anything, just banged and crashed amid everything on the floor, there would only have been an oddly placed empty cardboard box, if the rat had escaped by itself and vanished into the dark depths, the way they do.
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That only happened once though. Some places have a reputation for frequent and inexplicable disturbances.
 
I was in the local co-op this morning; there was a supervisor lady there and another behind the till who I’ve known for years and they were talking about a trolley rolling out the back then ‘ghost’ was mentioned and of course I said, ‘Have you really got a ghost here?’
Both of them nodded and said ‘Oh yes.’ (Adding here that they’re both very nice people and quite down-to-earth from the interactions I’ve had, age range about 50-60).

The supervisor hasn’t been there that long, only about a year but the other has been working there for at least 8 years and calls the ghost ‘Percy’.

Supervisor comments that she used to live in a haunted house and so when things happen she never completely writes it off.
She also said she’s not keen on being last there last thing at night. She’s seen him walking around (male? I asked and she said yes, tall and male-shaped) and the other week she was in the little canteen alone when ‘he’ tapped her on the shoulder. Things go missing or get moved; some accounted for by saying staff do it, but sometimes when there’s only the one person in and things move, that explanation doesn’t work.

I wondered aloud if it had been someone who worked there but neither know. The row of shops is as old as the local estate so perhaps 50 years? Prior to the Co-op it was another food store and before that fields, I assume? Roman artefacts have been found and about as mile away is a Roman settlement that was found when the bypass was made but not properly excavated and is now under a field.

I must ask for more info. I’ll try and choose a time to go in when it’s not very busy.
 
Fanari_Lloyd said:
I was in the local co-op this morning; there was a supervisor lady there and another behind the till who I’ve known for years and they were talking about a trolley rolling out the back then ‘ghost’ was mentioned and of course I said, ‘Have you really got a ghost here?’
Both of them nodded and said ‘Oh yes.’ (Adding here that they’re both very nice people and quite down-to-earth from the interactions I’ve had, age range about 50-60).

The supervisor hasn’t been there that long, only about a year but the other has been working there for at least 8 years and calls the ghost ‘Percy’.

Supervisor comments that she used to live in a haunted house and so when things happen she never completely writes it off.
She also said she’s not keen on being last there last thing at night. She’s seen him walking around (male? I asked and she said yes, tall and male-shaped) and the other week she was in the little canteen alone when ‘he’ tapped her on the shoulder. Things go missing or get moved; some accounted for by saying staff do it, but sometimes when there’s only the one person in and things move, that explanation doesn’t work.

I wondered aloud if it had been someone who worked there but neither know. The row of shops is as old as the local estate so perhaps 50 years? Prior to the Co-op it was another food store and before that fields, I assume? Roman artefacts have been found and about as mile away is a Roman settlement that was found when the bypass was made but not properly excavated and is now under a field.

I must ask for more info. I’ll try and choose a time to go in when it’s not very busy.
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Fantastic ghost-digging there. :bthumbup:
 
Steven said:
prods with stick
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I go in a few days a week as it’s just around the corner.
Both ladies seemed more than a happy to talk about it so hopefully more info soon. Obviously I don’t want to talk when people are queueing to be served but I hope to go in at a time that’s not too busy.

Just goes to show that it doesn’t have to be crumbling castles and sprawling old mansions, though they’re much more atmospheric! This place is as ‘ordinary’ as it gets, typical estate row of smallish shops, and not even very old.

What struck me was how completely matter-of-fact they both were about it. They didn’t seem particularly bothered, a least the lady who’s worked there years wasn’t, though the supervisor said she didn’t like being there on her own and locking up late.
 
Fanari_Lloyd said:
I go in a few days a week as it’s just around the corner.
Both ladies seemed more than a happy to talk about it so hopefully more info soon. Obviously I don’t want to talk when people are queueing to be served but I hope to go in at a time that’s not too busy.

Just goes to show that it doesn’t have to be crumbling castles and sprawling old mansions, though they’re much more atmospheric! This place is as ‘ordinary’ as it gets, typical estate row of smallish shops, and not even very old.

What struck me was how completely matter-of-fact they both were about it. They didn’t seem particularly bothered, a least the lady who’s worked there years wasn’t, though the supervisor said she didn’t like being there on her own and locking up late.
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My spooky work depot has to be checked over and locked up at night by whoever's Last Man Standing. Some dislike doing this.
I don't mind even when the place decides to give me a fright by picking up my locker and banging it on the floor or chucking my property around.

Well, it tries. Pathetic. :chuckle:
 
I do wonder if our old building has still got the old spooks. It’s a European food shop now (nice Polish things). I wish I had the guts to ask. The supermarket we are in now always has people in it so not really much room for noticing spooky stuff.
 
Within about the last 5 years, where the Mrs works has seen two on site staff suicides and the father of the business owners death (of old age) also in the same grounds. I remember looking at the place when I also worked there and thinking with the history of it (Georgian era), it must have had some ghostly happenings reported but the old boy told me no. He was born in the dining room of the place in 1936, grew up to run the place and retired there with his wife so if anyone would have heard about anything ghostly, he would have been the man but he just smiled and told me nope.

Since the more recent suicide, the Mrs has felt a 'someone walked over my grave' shiver a couple of times at the same time that staff member used to turn up for work as well as doors that should and shouldn't be locked being found in the opposite. The doors was one of his jobs. Also a large tray somehow flew off a table (heard, not seen) with no staff close to it not long ago.

I won't be able to do an investigation there out of sensitivity to people's feeling because all the relatively recent deaths were of people everyone knew and loved. In theory, I might be able to next January because the Mrs is left in charge of the whole building which is closed to the public every January but it would still have to be very covert. I wouldn't be able to go in with a team without risking upsetting the old man's Sons who own the place should they turn up.
 
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MorningAngel said:
I do wonder if our old building has still got the old spooks. It’s a European food shop now (nice Polish things). I wish I had the guts to ask. The supermarket we are in now always has people in it so not really much room for noticing spooky stuff.
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I did just remember one thing it was ages ago nearer to when we moved to the new place. I was on my own and smelt cigarette smoke in the central area of our main stockroom. Which was odd. There’s an ally runs behind the back of our shop. I don’t want even think about what goes on down there. If it was in that area I would say it was someone in the ally but it wasn’t. Also we have motion activated lights that sometimes turn on by themselves. I’m glad they never got around to putting them in the old place.
 
MorningAngel said:
Also we have motion activated lights that sometimes turn on by themselves.
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We had an elderly relation who was prone to wandering at night. The council installed a surveillance system to pick up when she walked between rooms or opened the external doors.

It didn't record images, just instances of her moving about. We could track her live on the app and see if she went outside at inappropriate times.
Interestingly, the app recorded movements in rooms without her visiting them. The installer couldn't explain this apart from ghosts. :nods:
 
In the late 90s, I worked in Argyle House, which is in the West Port in Edinburgh. It's a 1960s style concrete building, but the story was that the lower levels were haunted by Burke and/or Hare. Apparently a figure wearing a hat and cloak was seen on occasion. This was all secondhand and I never met anyone who had experienced anything in the years I worked there.
(If you've ever seen the ITV series Irvine Welsh's Crime, it's used for the police station in that).
 
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Swifty said:
they cheerfully told me they were looking for cigarette buts on the pavement and clearly pissed
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Techy and I saw a bloke doing this today as we cycled through town.

He's a local eccentric who wears a kilt over long johns.
I noticed what he was doing because I saw him from behind bent double on the pavement and thought 'Thank goodness for thermals!' :thought:
 
I have a ghost story for work.

But, you are going to have to come see me to hear it.
 
I had a chance to talk to the supervisor in the Coop earlier when I popped in.

I asked her if their ghost had been active and she half-rolled her eyes and laughed and said ‘Oh, yes.’

I asked then if anyone had mentioned the place having a ghost when she first joined and she said no.

Apparently no-one else actually sees anything* although there are noises and things being moved And the not-so-nice-late-at-night-on-your-own feeling.
It seems like it was only after she mentioned seeing something that other staff really talked about this.

What she sees herself is a black shadow that moves and has occasionally interacted (as when she said she had a tap on the shoulder) sometimes in the shop or in the area out the back in the offices/warehouse. In the shop it might seem like a customer has come in and gone down an aisle when no-one’s there. It only has about 5 small aisles so it's easy to check.

*She told me she had lived in a haunted flat in Cirencester. Originally a row of houses that were converted to mews flats.

There were two ghosts a male and a female and she saw the latter one day when ironing and a pair of legs in trousers walked past to the kitchen. She thought it was her husband and called out to him but he was in the bedroom.

She got to the point that if she saw a shape going into a room she’d call to see where he was, and if it wasn’t him, she’d say, ‘Just the ghost, then’.

I asked if it had worried her and she said no, as there was no bad atmosphere and the ghosts didn’t interact, they were just ‘there.’

So she wasn’t all that worried/shocked about seeing things in the Coop as she had lived in a house that was haunted. She’s very calm and matter-of-fact.

I might see if I can ask people at the other shops to see if it’s an ‘area’ thing or just confined to the Coop. (There’s a couple of shops I don’t use, like as the hairdresser and bookies but the rest I do pop in quite often). There is one chap in the Coop who’s worked there for many years who might have more info but he’s a bit quiet and morose. However he sometimes stands outside having a ciggie on his break and so if I see him I’ll try to strike up a conversation.
 
A little bit more info today as I caught the lady behind the till in a quiet moment earlier.

This lady has been working at the Coop about 10-12 years I think, and is very pleasant woman.

She sometimes does the baking early (cookies, flapjacks, pastries etc) and has unlocked the door of the room and finds things all over the place, scattered, on top of shelves where they shouldn’t be, etc.

I suspected rats or mice, but she was firm in that it wasn’t as they have to be very careful with pests (The shop has a 5 hygiene rating). No sign of rats, mice or anything else and due to the bakery goods there they are very strict. The baker has to make sure all is tidy and spotless when they finish.
(I still think it might be rats but I’m not privy to the place or the room itself and how easy it might be for rats to get in when things are locked up).

She also said that “Percy” had taken G’s glasses. (G is a chap who’s worked there probably longer than anyone) from behind the tills. They’re prescription glasses so he’s miffed.
Now, since Covid the tills have a plastic screen in front so a customer can’t cough and sneeze over the staff or reach over and take anything.

The staff are claiming that none of them did it and everyone’s looked and still are looking. (She said “When things go missing it’s never the staff, sometimes it’s impossible for it to be staff.”

It’s not the first time that things have been moved or have just completely gone.
Sometimes things return and sometimes not.
At times these things are being moved when there’s only one of the staff on site, shelf-stacking etc before and after opening, at other times it’s impossible to rule out other staff or customers of course.

She confirmed that “Percy” is around all over the shop not just in the staff areas. She’s not at all bothered herself, though she completely believes there is a ghost and if things go missing or move unexpectedly, she’ll exclaim, “Oh, Percy!” but she’s a very easy-going lady.
 
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