I Had Paranormal Encounters At My Office & Decided To Never Stay There Alone Again

I had office paranormal encounters while OT-ing alone

When we talk about paranormal encounters or ghost hunting, we usually refer to haunting abandoned houses and age-old ruins.

However, times have changed.

Creepy vibes and supernatural tales are no longer exclusive to cemeteries or popular haunted houses, but they are also found in modern-day offices.

I, as a case in point, witnessed some spooky things in the previous company that I worked at.

Here are the 3 paranormal encounters that forced me to think twice about staying in the office alone.

Story No.1: the sound of a keyboard typing

My office was in District 1

Before becoming a full-time writer, I worked as a sales agent in Saigon. My office was located in a commercial building in District 1.

Due to the nature of my job, I often had to work overtime and on weekends when the occasion called for it.

This was me (circled) at my working desk

From sorting out paperwork on short notice to sending an urgent email, I sometimes had to check in my office during hours when nobody was present.

On one Saturday morning at 9AM, I was in my office with L., another colleague. Since my workstation is designed into 4 separate wings, she was sitting on the other side of the office where we couldn’t see each other.

After sending an email to my client, I went to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. When I came back, I noticed something different and froze before I reached my working desk.

I heard someone typing on the keyboard of a computer that was 1 meter away from mine.

I was standing about 2 meters away from the computer from which I heard a sound, while facing it.

The desk with the computer that nobody was using at the time (indicated by an arrow).

Of course, nobody was sitting at the desk. And nobody had touched that computer for months already.

For your information, my team had 8 people at the time. Each one had their own desk and computer. That particular desk was not assigned to anyone and no one from my team used its computer. Some people had sat there from time to time, but they moved to different seats after 1 or 2 weeks, citing uncomfortable feelings and weird fatigue.

Horrified and flustered, my brain raced to find a logical explanation for what I was witnessing: the keyboard was typing by itself and nobody was there.

I thought to myself: maybe T., our administrator who was about 1.5M tall was sitting there.

For the record, my lovely colleague was of a short stature. If there was anyone in the company whose head I couldn’t see behind a computer, it would have been her.

However, it didn’t make any sense because that was not her working desk. If she showed up at the office on that day, she would have been sitting at her own desk in another wing.

To be sure that nobody was sitting behind the computer, I did something weird.

I put down my cup of coffee, and stooped down to see if there were any feet at the desk.

Of course, there were no feet. It couldn’t have been T.

Image credit: Pexels/Luis Miguel
For illustration purposes only

As I was on my knees looking at the desk, I still heard the typing sound coming from the computer.

Another theory came to my mind.

Perhaps it was a rat running back and forth on the keyboard and causing that noise.

However, that possibility was immediately ruled out because I knew for sure my air-conditioned office was cleaned daily and nobody had ever talked about seeing any rats there. Plus, a sane mouse doesn’t run around on a boring keyboard for several minutes. By the way, the sound was as if someone was typing on purpose at the speed of around 40 words per minute and with intermittent pauses.

I decided to go closer to my working desk. I needed to get out of there as fast as I could.

The moment I reached my desk, the typing sounds just stopped short, as if that invisible force was noticing my presence.

My heart felt like stopping too.

My colleague sat in another wing (indicated by an arrow).

I ran as fast as I could to the other wing of my office towards my colleague.

I told her in a whisper, even though nobody besides us were there, “You have to come with me to my desk. I think there was a ghost there.”

She looked at me with her eyes wide open, replying in a serious tone, “It’s not a good time to joke. Say any more and I’ll kill you.”

“I’m very serious. I need to grab my belongings. I’m not going back there alone,” I implored.

Seeing the horror in my eyes, she agreed to accompany me to my desk.

The desk where my 1st office paranormal encounter took place (indicated by an arrow)

The sounds had completely stopped, as I pointed her towards that particular computer.

I told her what happened, and she didn’t give any comments.

Before I left, she said, “Don’t share that story with anyone. If the management learns of that, they will think that you’re sowing the seed of superstition.”

Immediately after that, she offered to leave the office with me.

Story No.2: who was sitting in my boss’ chair that night?

Picture for illustration purposes only
Image credit: Pexels / Alina Ananko

After the creepy incident that I encountered, I vowed to never return to the office alone.

However, I still had to.

One evening, as I was having dinner, I realized that I had forgotten my phone at the office.

Even though it was 9PM at the time, I was determined to go back.

When I reached the office building, the light in the hallway had already been turned off. The only people there were some security guards having their late-night meals.

My office was steeped in darkness, meaning that everyone had left.

I used my key card to open the door, turned on the lights, and went to my desk to grab my phone.

Right after that, I ran to the door and turned off the lights, preparing to leave.

My boss’ working room (indicated by an arrow)

However, something happened before I could walk out of the door.

The door that I was standing at was right opposite my boss’ office, which was made of glass. So even though it was dark, I could still somewhat see the furniture inside his room.

As I was standing there, I suddenly saw the chair at his desk turning 90 degrees towards me.

I was stunned.

The chair inside my boss’ room turned towards me. Picture for illustration purposes only.
Image credit: Pexels / Max Vakhtbovych

I literally thought that I was the only one in the office, and now I was seeing a chair turning to face me. However, I couldn’t get a clear picture of who was sitting on the chair.

I felt the earth trembling beneath my feet.

I prayed all the Biblical verses that I could recollect out loud just to keep myself sane. To be honest, I’d never done anything like that before – praying loud and clear as if I were participating in an exorcism.

Still, the chair didn’t turn. It was still there facing me, about 4 meters away.

I was completely lost for words. I tried to reassure myself that maybe it was my boss sitting there and that I couldn’t see him very clearly.

Nonetheless, a thought dawned on me: if my boss was really there to work, how come there was no light coming from his laptop screen? He couldn’t have read in the dark, so he must have worked on his laptop. However, I couldn’t see any light, though dim, coming out from the chair’s position.

Unable to find an explanation for what I was seeing, I managed to drag my feet out of the office and shut the door. The whole moment I was waiting for the lift, I dared not lift my head lest I saw any creepy things inside my office.

Image credit: Pexels / Kelly Lacy

Travelling from my office to the ground level was quite an ordeal, but I got out of the building safely at around 10PM.

The next morning, I talked with my boss’ personal assistant and told her that I saw the bossman working very late last night at the office.

She stared at me and replied, “Are you sure? He has been on a business trip to Hanoi for several days already.”

That was when I knew that the person sitting inside that room was not my boss.

After the incident, I told another colleague about what happened.

She told me that she had heard a similar story from H., another colleague who had left the company.

According to H., he had once seen not only 1, but 3 chairs in a locked meeting room turning by themselves at the same time as he was in the office alone.

Story No. 3: a black shadow who closed the door

My office doors were made of glass. Picture for illustration purposes only.
Image credit: Pexels / Max Vakhtbovych

My office had 1 main door, 1 back door, and 1 internal door that separates the working area from the hall and the kitchen. The layout of the office is designed in a rectangular shape, so it’s easy to tell who is walking in and out.

From my desk, I had a clear view of the back door and could always see who came in and out.

After 6PM, the main door was closed and whoever checked in and out of the office would use the back door.

I was working late in the office that evening with my colleague J., who was sitting on the other side of the office, and her daughter. I was completely alone in my wing, and so was she in the other wing, which was close to the kitchen door. Her daughter was playing around in the middle area.

We promised each other that we would leave the office together because I was scared of running into a creepy event again.

While we were in the office, we made sure that all doors were closed as per the office manager’s request.

I, my colleague, and her daughter were the only ones in the office. Picture for illustration purposes only.
Image credit: Pexels / Pixabay

As I was working on my computer, I saw a figure in black pass by from the corner of my eye. A few seconds after that, I heard very clearly the sound of the back door clicking. When the back door clicked, it meant that someone had just closed it.

I was startled and looked up. I thought that J. and her daughter had left without me.

Angry and scared at the same time, I rushed towards the door to see if she had been waiting for the elevator in the corridor.

To my surprise, I saw nobody.

Nobody was waiting at the elevator
Image credit: Pexels / Michael Morse

If someone had used the elevator, I would have heard the sound of the elevator coming up and down.

I went to the other side of the office and saw that my colleague was still there.

I told her what I just saw and asked her, “Did you see anyone walk by just now?”

She said no.

My colleague sat in this wing (indicated by an arrow).

J.’s position was close to the internal door that separated the workstation with the kitchen, which had remained locked since 5.30PM. She insisted that nobody had walked through the internal door the entire time she was sitting there.

To make sure that we were the only ones in the office, I asked her daughter if she had seen anyone because she was running around the office the whole time. She confirmed that she hadn’t seen anyone, from the corridors to the kitchen.

The only areas of the office that were lit up were our work stations.

Not only had I seen a black figure pass by, but I had even heard the back door click.

Besides, my office was pretty much an open space. If anyone had been there, we would have seen that person when we first walked in already.

If we were still there, who had walked past me and closed the back door?

We looked at each other in silence, ran to pack our belongings, and left the office immediately.

Every office has its own story and paranormal encounters are not uncommon

In addition to familiar workplace terrors such as impossible deadlines, mean colleagues, and nasty bosses, there are other types of horrors that are beyond explanation.

Perhaps other colleagues haven’t heard any uncanny sounds or encountered any spine-chilling events during their lonely shifts as I did. However, I certify that what I saw and heard was true.

In hindsight, I no longer feel fearful thinking about them.

Every place has its own stories. It’s natural if our workplace or living environments are also the shelters of those who belong to the afterlife. Therefore, don’t get too shocked about it. As long as we carry ourselves with due respect when we’re in the environment, I think we’ll be fine.

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Cover image adapted from: Pexels /Josh Sorenson, Pexels / Max Vakhtbovych, and Pexels / Max Vakhtbovych

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