When Work Gets Spooky

to the show. This is a special Halloween episode. So first, Happy Halloween. Today, we're going to talk about Halloween in the office, ways that I can go wrong, things to avoid, and questions that I get a lot about Halloween. We're also going to hear from callers who have had spooky experiences at work, so get ready to be creeped out by those stories. In fact, to launch the show, let's start with one colors spooky experience at work. So in I used to work at Lincoln Castle as a general

staff member. One of my roles was to sit in the corner of a specially made vault containing an original Magna Carta document which is about just over eight years old. Anyhow, I would pretty much stop people taking photos in there, answer questions, and just beyond guard. When nobody's in there, it can get pretty quiet if the film isn't playing in the next room and there is a sensor above

the vault door that flicks to red from green. If a person walks through Q tow an afternoon when it's dead and I'm chilling on my guard store when the censor starts flicking fast green to red, green to red, and let me tell you, no one is near it, not me or any visitors. In addition to this spookery, the glass of the Magna Carta casing starts to fog up then disappears almost instantly, regards one creeped out ex castle staff member aka Natasha from Lincoln in the UK.

That story has everything that I want from a spooky story, an old historical artifact castle, mysterious flashing lights, even fog, and of course, completely unanswered questions about what happened. We're gonna have more first person accounts from Colors as we move through the show, but let's talk about Halloween at work. Let's start with should you wear a costume to work?

Or the other version of this question that I get a lot is do you have to wear a costume to work if everyone else is and you don't feel like it, will you look like a stick in the mud. There's nothing wrong with dressing up at work. If that's a thing that your office does, it can be really fun. The one caution I would give is to think about the work that you might end up needing to do that day and make sure that your costume isn't going

to get in the way. Like if you have to talk to clients, obviously, don't wear a costume that makes it hard to talk or to hear. And if you ever have to deliver difficult or sensitive news in the course of doing your job, take that into a out too, because you don't want to give someone bad news while you're dressed as a banana or a ghoul. The same thing is actually true when it comes to decorations at

work too. You don't want to find yourself giving someone bad news, or even just talking to a stressed out person surrounded by blood and fake spider webs while as soundtrack of eerie music is playing in the background. Once the other costume rules, if you are new to your office, if you weren't there last Halloween and you're not sure what their traditions are. Ask ahead of time because you probably don't want to be the only person in your office dressed as a bloody zombie or iron man or

what have you. And then be thoughtful about what your costume is, so that means nothing sexually provocative, despite the trend in Halloween costumes being increasingly sexed up. So no naughty nurses, no sexy cat, no flasher or so forth. Basically assume that co workers shouldn't see any more of your body than they do on any other day of

the year. That's a pretty good litmus test. And don't wear a costume that plays on racist or ethnic tropes, and don't dress up as a member of a group that's been systemically oppressed, So that means no Native American costumes, no black face obviously, Actually I say obvious, but it isn't obvious to everyone. Every fall I hear about someone whose coworker has apparently not gotten the no black face

message yet, so it bears repeating. And really you should stay away from costumes that could come across as making fun of serious issues too, so like no Harvey Weinstein costume, for example, and nothing that's very political. Your goal is to have fun, it's not to make your coworkers feel uncomfortable around you. Yeah, what if you don't want to dress up, but everyone else in your office is doing it? Will you look like a web blanket if you don't

join in. You certainly don't have to dress up if you don't want to, But if you're in an office where everyone is doing it, it might make sense to just throw on a witch hat and call it done. You know, you can keep it really low key. You don't have to go all out with an elaborate costume. But sometimes in an office where everyone else is really into it, it's easier to just do something simple and look like you're participating, rather than field questions all day

long about why you're not dressed up. But you certainly don't have to. And of course, if you have a religious objection to celebrating Halloween, as some people do, that's a whole different thing, and you of course can opt

out in that case. But if you're not really into it, but you're thinking, I should just do something so that I don't get hassled all day over at the Aska Manager website, recently, commenters were sharing ideas for really low key Halloween costumes that are easy to do at work, when you want to sort of make a nod to this group experience and not seem like you're totally not participating, but when you also don't want to put a ton

of effort into it. Some of the ideas people suggested that I thought were great were just something as simple as a headband with cat ears or one of those headpieces with an arrow through your head. Or you cannot wear a costume at all and when people ask, you can say I'm a serial killer they look like everyone else, or I'm might evil twin. I have a whole bunch of these, by the way, I'm going to go through the whole list, and I just want to make it

clear I cannot take credit for these. These are all ideas from asking manager commenters. Another one someone suggested, right on a white T shirt four oh four costume not found. Or wear jeans and a T shirt and a hard hat and now you're a construction worker. Or wear a suit and be the CEO. Or get a rectangle of yellow cardboard, hold it up to your face and tell

people that you are National geographic. Or stick your arms inside your top and say that you are the book Farewell to Arms, or pretty much anything that Jim Helpert did on the office is a good model. Here, tape three circles to your shirt, say you're a piece of notebook paper, were a name tag that says Dave and say that your Dave. Put on a wizard hat. Or if you normally wear a suit, add sunglasses and now you're men in black, or where goffier makeup than usual

and say that you're goth. Or my favorite suggestion that someone made just because it sounds so comfortable, wear a hoodie and sweatpants and have messy hair and say that you're a frazzled college student. That one gets my vote. Or you can just say, you know, yeah, I didn't dress up this year, but I love your costume and

that is fine too. Also, while we're on this topic, if you are in an office where most people do dress up and you've got one coworker who doesn't, don't hassle them about not getting into the spirit of the holiday or whatever. Not everyone likes dressing up. Some people have reasons that might be private. Enjoy the costumes of the people who did dress up and let your other coworkers be costume free in peace. Let's take a short break and I will come right back with another spooky

work story from a collar. Here's a spooky thing that happened at work. I often find myself working late in the office, and I'm usually there by myself. Sometimes it can be really late, it's like ten or eleven o'clock at night, and being the boss, I tend to walk around the office, which is quite large, and make sure that all the lights are shut off at the end of the day. Well, I have gone through the building

multiple times and had all the lights shut off. Obviously no one's there because I've gone through the entire building been on the other side of the building when I've heard a door slam shut. At first, I always thought it was a fluke thing, but it has happened so many times, and come to find out that the building

has a little bit of um some just people. Other people have experienced a similar thing, doors being shut even though no one else is there, and even hearing people speaking, and then come to find out nobody's actually in the hallway. Needless to stay working until ten or or eleven o'clock at night in the dark has become my not favorite thing to do in that office. That's my spooky office story.

You know. In past years, I've asked readers at my website to share spooky experiences that they've had at work, and a lot of people reported stuff like this, voices when no one was there and doors slamming when they were alone in the building. It's interesting because if I were a ghost, I would not choose to hang out at work or in an office building. Possibly these ghosts

were workaholics in previous lives. I don't know. Okay, There's one other context where I get questions about Halloween costumes and work, and that is job interviews. I've had more than one person right to me and ask if they should wear a costume if they have a job interview on Halloween, presumably as a way to show some personality or that they're fun or whatever. But don't do it.

I'm sure there is some interviewer out there who would like it and think that you're fantastic, but there are far far more interviewers who are going to think it's a little inappropriate and an odd choice for an interview. Plus, you really want their focus to be on your qualifications. And not on whatever you're wearing. Anyway, let's get to more spooky stories. In fact, the whole rest of the show is going to be all spooky stories from people.

I had mentioned earlier that in previous years I've asked ask a manager readers readers over at the website from which this podcast has sprung to share their own stories of spooky happenings at work. And I thought I would share a couple of my favorites that people have sent in in past years, and then we'll hear more that podcast listeners have called in with. Here's one that someone shared that is really a bit spooky. I work in

a nursing home with many folks who have dementia. They live in other realities, and I'm used to residents saying weird things. However, there seems to be a trend in one area of the building where residents to quickly refer to quote the little boy who always seems to be standing somewhere near It's very common for a resident to be talking to the little boy or look like they're talking to thin air, and it's also common for them to ask us questions about the boy, like is this

your child? Or is the little boy going to come to the activity, to et cetera. It's only in that one area of the building, but it's with almost all of the residents who have dementia. Only one of them has a history of having visual hallucinations. It does creep me out a little bit. I don't know if collective shared hallucinations are a thing or not. It wouldn't surprise me if they were, but this is a pretty unsettling story.

Here's another one someone submitted. I worked in a place where when we renovated our office, they decided to replace all the walls with glass to show that we were a transparent organization. As you can probably guess, leadership, they're kind of sucked. While the higher ups had frosted glass offices, most of the staff at glass fish bowl offices with no doors. As you can imagine, we all hated when we lost our walls, particularly one guy who routinely complained

about it. Well, a few months later, this guy's fired for unrelated reasons in the worst way possible, where they did it mid morning and everyone saw it happen. Hard to hide things in the glass office, so he had to pack up all his stuff and was escorted from the building. The next day, the glass walls of the fired guy's office shattered. No one was near that office, no one saw anything suspicious, and we worked in a secure office so people couldn't come in without us knowing.

We never found out what happened, but I like to think that fired guy got his revenge. I love that one. Here is another one, almost twenty years ago. I worked for my town's park and Recreation department. Started as a summer job in college, but I ended up in a program manager role for a while and worked part time through the year. While I was in school part time because my hours weren't nine to five Monday through Friday, I went in at off hours to get my work

done around my course schedule. The office was in an old building that had been a gym. The basketball court was ancient but was still used for games and special Olympics. This isn't a terrifying ghost story by any means, but it's very spooky to be working late at night and here the unmistakable squeaking of multiple pairs of sneakers playing on a basketball court when there's no one but you in the building. There was also a basement that had a very scary vibe. I wouldn't go down there alone.

There had been tunnels under my town that were used to run booze during prohibition, and my building had some boarded up underground entrances that scared the hell out of me. It felt very ghosty. There was also the spot on the stairs by the edge of the basketball court. They took you up to a small storage space and a balcony seating area to view the court. It was just this one spot where you could stand and feel super haunted.

It wasn't so specific like in a really good ghost story, like you wouldn't see opparitions or anything, but there was this unmistakable scary feeling you'd get at this one spot on the stairs. I can still picture it. I had a friend who considered herself to be pretty open to the spirit world. I thought she was a little looney, but I was kind of seeking some confirmation that there

was a really weird feeling on those stairs. So I brought her in one night and she was a wild eyed, like the place just scared the hell out of her. I brought her up to the stairs and I didn't say anything. I just wanted her to go up and let me know how she felt. And she stopped right before the spot and said, I'm not going past this area. I will not stand here. I can't do this and pointed to the spot that always gave me the spooky feelings. I'm a fairly logical person and not easily tricked by

things that could be other things. You know, ghost stories don't usually work on me. But I also know what I heard and what I felt. I'm not going to read too much into it or you know, makeup that a guy died there and his ghost still plays basketball all night. But that place had some really weird vibes, confirmed by many many people. Okay, here is another creepy story someone shared. I'm loving all of these, and I

hope you're liking them too. By the way, I have worked at my current agency for almost eight years, and during that time, I've been shuffled back and forth between my current office were the only scary things are the skunks that occasionally get into the basement and the main office, which is a restored elementary school building originally constructed in the late eighteen hundreds. I never experienced anything myself while working there, but there was definitely supposed to be a ghost.

We had an elaborate security system, and one night, long after everyone in the office was gone, the motion activated camera came on and started to record. When I reviewed the video in the morning, it showed a weird, shapeless shadow that floated through the lobby and kind of paused at the windows of the doors. The offices were converted from the classroom, so each cubicle area had a window

door that opened under the central lobby. The shadow eventually floated up over the receptionist desk and disappeared, and then the camera turned off. I wish I could upload the video because it is truly creptastic, but I don't dare. I t has saved it on the shared drive and uses it to freak out new hires. Let's do one fight. I'll drink here and then we'll come back with more stories from callers. I mean, this is for the Spooky

Halloween coming cast. I had and I've had experiences where I used to work as a dispatcher for a charity clothing and toy warehouse, and it was my job to close the warehouse and after everyone had gone home, and I've finished some compliance and and I cannot count the number of times that I would be walking in among the carts and all of a sudden, always simultaneously and always spontaneously, a bunch of toys in a bunch of guards would start quacking or playing creepy music or talking.

Once doll actually sat up and looked at me from from the top of a garbage bag and laughed at the creepiest laugh ever. I felt like I was the in the first scene of a Doctor Who episode and they wouldn't even realize I was gone, or maybe a a murder doll movie. But so that's my creepy Aska manager story. If a doll sat up and looked at me and laughed creepily, I would be out of that warehouse in seconds. So kudos to you caller for going

back night after night. Here's another of my favorite stories that was shared by an Aska Manager reader in the past. At my last job, I would often work several hours past the others and past dark. There were multiple times when I would hear filing cabinets opening downstairs. Here the printer randomly turn on and start whirring and voices whispering.

Sometimes the door would be unlocked when I was sure that I had locked it every time I thought someone else would come back for something, and every time it was dark and silent. When I got downstairs to look. The voices were the worst. When you work in an industrial park, you don't expect to hear talking from outside after hours, the places in the middle of nowhere. Of course,

you could make an argument for stress. I sat at the top of the stairs in a creaky old building with my back to the stairwell, and I was overworked and tired. That said my boss, Slash, the owner, did die in a tragic and unexplained plane crash a couple of months before. H I think the stressing is interesting. I mean, it's hard to trust ourselves entirely when we're stressed out and tired. On the other hand, you have to be really stressed out to be hearing this stuff

every night, So who knows. Here's another one. This is also submitted by a reader. I work in a museum. There's always been a joke that the man the museum was named after haunted the place. Things would go missing and items in the souvenir shop would be moved when housekeeping did a deep clean at night. They always said strange stuff would happen, sounds, voices, etcetera. When the museum was renovated, we added a big screen theater. There's a control booth with a small storage area at the top

of the theater steps. There's also a tiny balcony behind the control booth where we have screens that face the main hall and that we used to advertise upcoming events, memberships, etcetera. Many of the security staff swear that they have seen and or experienced ghostly happenings in the control booth, storage area, balcony area. One really large muscled ex military guy had such a frightening experience that he refused to go in the theater. He was on rounds, checked the theater and

heard sounds in the control booth. He knew the A V guy was off that day, so he went up. He saw no one in the booth or in the storage area, so he was checking the balcony area. He said someone shoved him and he almost fell off the balcony. There was no one in the theater besides him, but they checked the tape anyway, You could clearly see on the tape the moment that he was pushed forward, but you couldn't see what pushed him. I stay away from

the theater. If the biggest security guard in the place was almost pushed off the balcony by invisible forces, I am not chancing it. Are you thoroughly creeped out? Yet? I have more? Here's another one, also from a reader. Back in college, I worked at a fairly fancy, fairly old hotel at the front desk and in the restaurant. Most of the restaurant shifts were fairly quiet on weeknights and during lunch, so we would sit in the back of the restaurant with a book and wait for customers.

We had a mirror above one of the back tables that was arranged so that we could see when guests arrived. I'm more than one occasion I saw a black figure in the mirror, went up front and saw it moved

through the restaurant and entered the kitchen. I assumed it was just my eyes playing tricks, because it was kind of creepy when you were there alone at night, up until my friend Rob mentioned that he had seen the same thing, except he was in the middle weight station and saw a figure walk over from the bar and crouched down behind the front booth before disappearing. We then pulled everyone else and found out that they were also seeing this shadow man thing, and we all thought that

we were imagining it or crazy. What the hell you all? Here's another one, also from a reader. I used to work in an office in a manufacturing facility. There were two rows of cubicles back to back with high walls so that we couldn't see to the other side. A co worker and I were working in one row trying to finish a project after hours, and it was about seven o'clock during the winter, so it was pretty dark.

When we heard loud laughter. We brushed it off, thinking it was one of our coworkers, so we yelled their name, complete silence. We quiet down, and we hear a keyboard clicking, so I go check on my coworker, thinking maybe they have headphones on and can't hear. There was no one there. Needless to say, we literally ran out of the office. The worst part is we weren't the only ones who

heard weird laughter after hours in that office. Nobody stayed past six o'clock alone, and we often hurried up to leave in groups when we had to work late because of how freaked out. We were Okay. Here's another one from a reader. I think this one is especially creepy. For about a year, I worked at the front desk of a youth hostel in a major US city and also shared a private room in the hostel with another worker. Hundreds of tourists the night would stay in the rooms.

The building was eight stories. Soon I noticed that pretty regularly I was getting complaints from people checking out the next morning about noise all night in the room above them. Why were people moving heavy furniture all night in that room? Was it people who were staying in that room? Some rooms, for example, had something like fourteen bunk beds, or was it management at the hostel. The complaints were that it sounded like heavy furniture was being shoved to the center

of the room and that it went out all night long. Well, I finally asked my manager about it, and he just pointed at the layout that we had for the hostel. We had these giant paper sheets it was the early nineteen nineties, and by hand we would check off beds and rooms as they were filled and for how many nights people were staying, etcetera. I don't know why it had never clicked with me when people made these complaints, but we never never checked guests in on the entire

floor that generated the complaints. And if you went up to that floor, the door to the room generating the complaints not only was locked, but was locked up with big link chains. Yikes. Let's do one more story, this one from someone who called in recently. Hey Allison. So, basically ten years ago, worked for a very very popular scene park on a college internship. If in the custodial department at the Seame Park there was an abandoned pavilion.

It had been closed several years prior, but the actual building had not been gutted or anything, so just an abandoned part of the steam park. Um and my management informed me that a corporation had booked the space out and it needed a thorough cleaning. So I was booked in for a late night overnight in un abandoned terrifying uh rooms that was painted with clowns all over the wall because for whatever reason that had a carnival motif. That was terrifying. So I I'm very afraid of the dark,

very afraid of spooky places. The life weren't working great, It was very dim. I was completely alone, clown staring at me vacuuming uh. And because I was so nervous, I was singing Disney songs at the top of my lunch when I turned a corner and I saw what I thought was humanoid shaped in the doorway, So I screamed. I fell to the ground clutching the vacuum cleaner, and it turns out that it looked like a humorid figure because it was It was actually my boss coming to

check on me. It was horrifyingly embarrassing. Nothing paranormal ended up happening, but it was still probably one of the scariest things that has ever happened to me at work. So that is our Halloween show. Thanks for listening, and I will be back next week with hopefully non spooky work questions.