A Call Center Story

Jomar works the graveyard shift as a janitor/maintenance staff for a call center in Makati. He says that spirits and ghost encounters constantly plague his workplace. Spooky occurrences such as flickering lights, self-opening doors, sounds of walking in the corridors, and, of course, the classic "Junjun" ghost are rampant in their building. "Madalas minumulto yung mga call center agents dito eh. Pero hassle lang kasi kapag may kababalaghang nangyayari ako agad tinatawag nila. Di nila alam duwag din ako." "The call center agents here often get haunted. It's just a hassle because whenever something spooky happens, they always call me. They don't know that I'm afraid too." Jomar shares that one night in late April of 2017, he heard a group of call center agents' screams. Many people quickly rushed to the scene to see all the lights of the hallway flickering and a panel of the ceiling on the floor. The woman who screamed claimed that she saw a foot push through the panel, followed by the sound of scampering in ceilings. A senior member told them that it was probably a rat and that they should get back to work. On the other hand, Jomar was shaking at the thought that he needed to be the one to fix the ceiling and the lights as well. As everyone went back to work, the lights luckily stopped flickering. Jomar started by sweeping up the debris and dust that had fallen from the incident. Afterward, he grabbed a ladder along with the ceiling panel and started to climb up to reinstall it. "Medyo binilisan ko na rin kasi kung daga man talaga yun eh natatakot rin ako na baka talunan ako bigla." "I hurried it up a bit because even if it really was a rat, I didn't want it suddenly jumping on me." But as Jomar peered into the dark space of the ceiling, he saw what looked to be a ragged man staring down at him and smiling. Its eyes were dark, and its face was all dried out and covered in dust. "Napasigaw ako sabay lundag pababa nung hagdan tas takbo! Nagkagulo rin yung buong office dahil sa akin." "I screamed and jumped off the ladder, then ran! The entire office panicked because of me." Jomar said that everyone in the area was evacuated as security was called. They inspected the ceiling but found no rats and no signs of the man that Jomar described. They did, however, find some food wrappers and old Tupperwares that the employees were able to identify as from lunches that they had lost months ago. After an intensive internal investigation, Jomar said that management still blamed rats living in the ceiling. Jomar says that thankfully, nothing like that has happened ever since, but he sometimes still hears heavy movements in the panels above him.