This just popped into my head after a similar question came up with a coworker…
Back a few decades ago I worked in Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA. My office window looked out towards another building about 15 feet away, and for some reason our floors were about 8 feet higher than the other building. So we could look down into the offices across the way.
The person in the office I could see into had his desk set up so that his back was to the window and he faced his office door. This gave me and my coworkers a clear view of his computer screen over his shoulder. He played Microsoft solitaire constantly, except when somebody walked in. He would very quickly close it so he wouldn’t get caught.
My coworkers and I actually tried to figure out his phone number, but never did. We wanted to call him up and tell him he should have played the red 9 on the black 10…
I was having lunch in the break room on the 23rd floor, vaguely watching the world go by. Two blocks away, a car drove up to the top level of a parking garage, a bunch of guys got out, and cut through the chain link fence separating the garage building from the roof of the building next door. “Well, that’s unusual behaviour “, I thought, and kept watching. When they moved over to that roof and started to break in to the rooftop door, I realised that it was the bank down the street. Called the cops and gave them a running commentary. Eventually when they showed up I got to see the tussle between the cops and the bad guys on the roof. Felt like a tv show.
Not from my office window per se, but on my way into work I saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center. That was weird and messed me up for a bit.
The weirdest one was probably back in March/April of 2020 when we were in a total covid lockdown, and an ice cream truck - completely alone on the street and the only vehicle seen for days - slowly drove by while playing Christmas music. That was some Twilight Zone shit.
I remember seeing the second plane hit while I was at work, live on the news. I kinda paused in shock, and said, “well fuck. We’re going to war.” The owner of the shop closed up for the rest of the day, and reopened at 6am the next day. We were normally 24/6.
Aww man. I remember that. I was in sixth grade. Rolling a TV into the classroom and turning on the news was an unfortunate choice. The teacher didn’t know that of course. The only time I can remember being sad about getting out of school early. We all just sat in the living room for the rest of the day with only the voice of Tom Brokaw to fill the void.
Our open office of five desks and 3-5 people was on the second floor; right outside our office was a short hall of 3 individual offices, but the people in the offices were often out of the office. We’d mostly all worked together for years by then, got along well, and were pretty informal.
We had an absolutely wonderful (if slightly ditzy) girl named Chrissy join the office one summer, fresh out of high school. She liked to dress up very stylishly - not like office wear, but like a popular cheerleader might wear to class, if that makes sense?
Anyway, we’re in the office one day, and Chrissy ducks out, then comes back in like one minute later, face absolutely flaming red. We ask what’s wrong and she could only stammer in response. She eventually got herself under control and said:
She’d stepped out to run some papers downstairs and, as she left the office, she felt her pantyhose start to sag, so she quickly ducked into one of the side offices, pulled up her skirt, and pulled her hose back up to the top of her thighs. When she looked up, there was a window-washer hanging off the side of the building, slowly and calmly wiping his squeegee back and forth across the window, looking directly at her and smiling kindly. She stared at him, mouth open, while he continued his slow, calm, almost meditative squgeeing across the window. As soon as her mind processed “unexpected man outside second floor window”, she bolted back to us.
It was literally like something directly out of a sitcom.
To protect everyone involved, this may or may not have happened ;)
Was working interstate at a new location for a few weeks. I didn’t know the area well enough and got caught up with traffic and lack of parking on my first day, so was late. No major issue but I knew I would have to come in earlier to avoid that in future. I started coming in at 630 because I am an early riser and my contract had me doing longer hours than the workers. I could be early and still in the office before everyone left at the end of the day.
Across the alley was another older office building that I noticed I could see clearly into an office, just above the desk area. On my first day I watched this older male manager hold meetings and so on. Nothing interesting.
On my second day, just before 7am, I watched this much younger woman appear in his office and undo her blouse before going to town on this guy. Kneeling behind his desk, head bobbing like a chicken eating feed. 5 mins later he must have been done as she wipes him down and they both straighten themselves up.
I then proceeded to notice her coming in and out of his office all day for meetings so I assume it was his secretary or assistant. Nothing else of that nature happened again throughout the day.
Next day, same thing. And it carried on every day of my 3 week contract.
You guys have office windows?
