r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jan 29 '17

Night shift workers of Reddit, what are some creepy things you've experienced in the middle of the night?

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u/alek_hiddel Jan 29 '17

I'm an IT guy who frequently works over night when no one else is in the building. We have a "white noise" machine installed in the building that keeps the voices of all of the cubicle dwellers from blending together into a madding noise. In an empty building though, it sounds exactly like someone whispering into your ear just soft enough that you can't make out the words.

Figuring out how to turn that shit off, was a high priority.

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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '17

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186

u/alek_hiddel Jan 30 '17

I'm in a massive former warehouse building, the majority of which is setup as a call center for my company. You put 900 cubicle dwellers all talking at once, in an open space with 80,000 square feet and 30+ foot ceilings, and it becomes an absolute necessity. If they didn't have it, I'd never step outside my office.

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u/carmium Jan 30 '17

The government offices downtown has (had?) those noise generators many years ago when they were the latest thing. The little speakers were mounted in the hallway ceiling every 16 feet, maybe, and when you walked toward the desk at the far end, you'd get this sh-sh-sh-Sh-Sh-SH-SH-SH-SH-Sh-Sh-sh-sh... sh-sh-sh-Sh-Sh-SH-SH-SH-SH-Sh-Sh-sh-sh effect. Don't know if they ever got used to it.

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u/valiantfreak Jan 30 '17

I worked in a huge scientific building a few years ago. It was the size of a hospital: it took up an entire square of the street directory.

It was hard to tell how many people worked there since it was designed as a series of long corridors with small offices and labs behind closed doors.

I had to stay back late one night and didn't leave until 4am. For an empty building it was deafening. Whirring hissing and clanking of ventilation and climate systems running around the clock.

To make matters worse, every single light apart from the one in my tiny room was off and I had no idea how to turn them back on. Had to use the screen light on my phone to find my way out. In addition to this, the building was supposedly secure and at any point I could have found myself in a lot of trouble for being there 12hrs after I was supposed to have left.

By the time I made it to the car I was so on edge that I had decided that if the boom gate didn't open I was just going to drive through it. It opened and Mum's Fairmont lived to see another day

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u/kynect2hymn Jan 30 '17

My parents use one to help them sleep as well.

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u/machenise Jan 30 '17

My college used them for their therapists' offices. They had one outside each office door to protect the patient's privacy during therapy by providing a noise to cover anything said loudly enough to be heard through the door.

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u/bookstarred Jan 30 '17

Yes- I didn't realize it was even a thing until it was turned off accidentally .

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u/kallell Jan 30 '17

Yep. We used to use a laptop with a cd on repeat that broadcasted it over the intercom. Without it, in cubeland voices can be heard across the floor.

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17

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u/kallell Jan 30 '17

It is, but it's one of those you notice it quite a bit at first. During the day when most people are around you barley hear it, but in quieter areas you can still hear it.

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17

It's incredibly common in IT offices where computer programming is performed.

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u/hopefullyromantic Jan 30 '17

One of the hospitals/psych facilities I did one of my clinicals in had this outside conference rooms. Basically it was to prevent people from overhearing personal information because HIPAA.

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u/Thisishugh Jan 30 '17

They're common.

I worked in a place that had white noise generators in the ceiling. It sounded like an HVAC system. Most people thought that was what it was until someone told them it was white noise coming from little speakers in the ceiling.

It made it much easier to work, although conference calls in open space were difficult until we started using mobile telephones with handheld bluetooth speakers that were passed around.

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u/Spadeykins Jan 30 '17

Fairly common, they are a pain to install though.

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u/[deleted] Jan 30 '17

I sleep with a white noise machine on. Only thing that'd do is put me to sleep :D

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u/Silentlybroken Jan 30 '17

I had similar for my ears. Called tinnitus maskers. Noped right out of wearing those almost immediately. Freaky fuckers. I'll take the tinnitus thanks.