Office Ghost Tales – Volume 1

A daytime office is nothing special.

The fluorescent lights are on, keyboards are clacking, someone is making coffee, someone is cursing in front of the printer, and someone casually says things like, “You can have this done by today, right?”

But once quitting time passes, it changes a little.

Conference rooms with the lights off.
Empty hallways.
A monitor left on by itself.
An office phone that suddenly rings.
An elevator that arrives even though no one pressed the button.

The reason office ghost stories are scary is that the place is too familiar.
It is not an abandoned house, not deep in the mountains, not some old haunted mansion.

The seat where I sit every day.
The bathroom I use every day.
The hallway I pass through every day.

That makes it feel even worse.

That feeling of “there should be no one here, but it feels like someone is.”
Most office ghost stories posted on worker communities or horror boards begin there too. In overseas collections of workplace horror stories, the same kinds of elements appear again and again: footsteps in a late-night office, voices, knocking sounds, and machines moving on their own. The basic ingredients of office ghost stories tend to be fairly similar. A late hour, someone left alone, and a sound when no one should be there.  

Below is a short collection of those company ghost stories.

I do not know whether they were real.
But one thing is certain.

After reading this, you will look toward the hallway at least once when working overtime.

1. The Rice Machine Brought into the Office

They say strange things began after someone brought a discarded rice machine into the office.

Every night, there was the sound of a doorknob turning.
The sound of someone inside cautiously trying to open it.

At first, they thought it was machine noise or a problem with the building’s pipes.
But one day, a soaked man appeared in someone’s dream.

After that, no one stayed near the machine for long.

In the end, the strange sounds only stopped after they got rid of the rice machine.

Source: DCInside Horror Gallery

2. Footsteps in the Hallway During Overtime

Someone was working overtime alone.

They were the only person in the office.
But footsteps came from the hallway.

Click.
Click.
Click.

Like someone slowly walking past.

When they opened the door and went out, there was no one there.
Even when they checked the CCTV, no person had been recorded.

But those footsteps did not happen only once that day.

Source: Blind, a worker community

3. The Shadow Reflected in the Conference Room Window

A person’s shadow was reflected in the conference room window.

The problem was its position.

They said the side where the shadow appeared was structured so that no person could stand there.
It was neither outside nor inside, just the shape of a person briefly reflected in the glass.

After that, the employees subtly avoided that conference room.

There were plenty of conference rooms available for reservation,
but that room alone somehow stayed empty until the very end.

Source: DCInside Horror Gallery

4. The Dawn Elevator

The elevator arrived even though no one had pressed any button.

The doors opened.

There was no one inside.
There was no one outside either.

Just an empty hallway and the quiet inside of the elevator.

But they say this kept happening during the early morning hours.
Some said it was a prank, and others said it was a sensor error.

But when you see an elevator stopping on the same floor every dawn,
it becomes a little hard to believe those explanations exactly as they are.

Source: Workplace Anonymous Board

5. The Hand That Came Under the Bathroom Door

An employee on duty was sitting inside a bathroom stall.

That was when a white hand came through the gap under the door.

At first, they thought someone was playing a prank.
But soon, another hand from the same direction came in.

Then another.

The hands silently groped across the floor.
As if looking for toilet paper or slippers.

Then they grabbed the strap of the employee’s handbag,
and dragged it under the door.

Source: Naver Horror Board

6. The Black Shadow That Passed Under the Stall Partition

It was around 3 a.m.

A black shadow passed under the bathroom stall partition.

It was too low to be a person’s feet.
But its movement was too distinct to be just a shadow.

At the same time, the bathroom lights grew dim.
Not a brief flicker, but as if the electricity had weakened.

Right after the shadow disappeared,
the elevator arrival chime sounded from the hallway.

Source: Horror Community Ghost Story Collection

7. Whispers in an Empty Office

They were alone in the office.

While using the computer, they heard a voice from behind.

“You’re there, aren’t you?”

They said it came from very close by.
As if someone had spoken right behind the back of their head.

Startled, they turned around, but no one was there.

The door was closed,
and inside the office, there was only the glowing monitor and their chair.

Source: Blind, a worker community

8. The Woman in White at the End of the Hallway

While working overtime, someone saw a woman in white standing at the end of the hallway.

At first, they thought she was an employee from another department.

But something was strange.
At that hour, the office on that side already had its lights off.

When they tried to go closer, the woman disappeared.
She had not run away, and she had not opened a door.

She was simply no longer at the end of the hallway.

After that, the employee reportedly turned on every hallway light first whenever working overtime.

Source: DCInside Horror Gallery

9. The Phone Call with No Call Record

After everyone had gone home, a phone rang in the empty office.

Someone answered it.

Beyond the receiver, there was only static instead of a voice.
It crackled briefly, then disconnected.

Finding it strange, they later checked the call history.

There was no record.

The phone had rung,
and they had definitely answered it,
but no trace of an incoming call remained.

Source: Naver Office Worker Cafe

10. The Printer That Printed by Itself

In the middle of the night, the printer started working.

There was no one in the office.
There were no documents waiting to be printed.

But the printer spat out one sheet of paper.

They say the paper had strange letters and images printed on it.
It looked like a corrupted file, but also like handwritten scribbles.

The problem came after that.

No one had printed that document.

Source: Blind, a worker community

11. A Child Crying Inside the Storage Room

The sound of a child crying came from the office storage room.

At first, they thought it was coming from outside.
But the sound was clearly coming from inside the storage room.

When they opened the door, it went quiet.

When they closed the door again and waited a little,
they heard a small sobbing sound.

After that, the employees reportedly stopped leaving the storage room door open for long.

Source: Horror Community Ghost Story Collection

12. The Face Reflected in the Turned-Off Monitor

While someone was working overtime, the monitor suddenly turned off.

Their own face was reflected in the black screen.
But behind it, there was one more face.

It lasted for only a very brief moment.

Startled, they turned around, but no one was there.
When they looked back at the monitor, the screen had returned to normal.

After that day, the employee reportedly changed the settings so the monitor would not turn off while working overtime.

Source: DCInside Horror Gallery

Office ghost stories are scary even without grand curses or rituals.

Because most of them begin in ways that are far too ordinary.

A sound comes from the hallway.
A phone rings.
A printer moves.
An elevator door opens.
Something passes beneath the bathroom stall.

During the day, all of it seems explainable.

But when you are left alone at night,
those explanations weaken one by one.

So in the end, office ghost stories leave behind a single question.

Am I really alone in this building right now?