I have been working in the call center industry for five years and since we are catering to American Clients, I would have to work at nights. Trainings in particular would start around 8:00PM (8:00AM EST) and end at 5:00AM (5:00PM EST). I'm a Trainer in one of the largest Call Centers based in Makati City and there was one Training Batch that I would never forget.
I have learned from experience that trainees would feel sleepy after one hour of break which would be after midnight. As such, I would always make a conscious effort to make all the discussions lively to keep them on their toes. One technique that worked perfectly for me was being "animated" while facilitating. I would have a lot of hand gestures, facial expressions and crack jokes every now and then and sometimes to stress a point.
Let me paint you a picture of how the Training Room looks like. In front was the Trainer's Station with a desktop computer on it. Facing the Facilator's Desk were two long tables in the middle where trainees can sit around. On each side were desks with computers on them which trainees use during training. At the very back of the room were windows overlooking the city as we were situated on the 10th floor of the building. Since we were working at nights, the windows were like mirrors that reflect images since it's dark outside.
Standing in front of the room, I could see all of my trainees and the windows at the back that reflect our images. During one of my "animated" discussions, I happened to glance at the windows at the back of the room and almost stopped dead when I saw another figure imitating me (as in imitating every move and gesture that I make!). I knew for a fact that I was standing next to no one as my trainees were all sitting in their seats listening to me. I brushed it off and attributed the incident to double visions that sometimes may happen if you look out the darkness outside the window.
At the same time, one of my trainees, Ella looked queasy and uncomfortable in her seat. She also looked very pale and her eyes shifted from me to "something" on my right side. Thinking that something was wrong I decided to give the class their last 15 minute break and nonchalantly approached Ella to ask if everything was ok. Ella asked if we could talk outside the training room so I decided to bring her to the Trainer's Pod.
Once inside, she told that she had been seeing "things" inside the training room since the first day that we started. She told me of figures walking by and standing near the door and of shadows in the corner of the room as well as whispers whenever they were all silent doing exercises. She then dropped the bomb and told me that a tall man was standing next to me imitating everything that I did in a mocking way. As if it was very amusing to him. Then it hit me that what I saw in the windows was not what I thought it was. I felt like my head was turning and my hair stood on ends. I was not able to come back to the training room after that and had to be replaced by another trainer until the end of the shift.
I'm no longer with that Call Center and am now happily conducting trainings in the day shift as our clients are Australians. But what is bugging me until this day is that why was I able to see the entity on the window?
Loading comments....
