Last work-related update, I promise

I work in an office in the business equivalent of those terrifying suburban labyrinth housing estates. I have no idea how many “units” there are in our “business park” but I know that we’re in the 280s, which is disconcerting. Moreover, I know that surprisingly little goes on in the offices around us.

The office opposite our own, for example, appears to have been bought pretty much just for the warehouse space attached to it. This means that during the afternoon, if I look out the window, there is a row of offices facing my own that are empty, unused and unadorned but for carpet. There are no cables dangling from the lights or layers of dust, nothing to indicate that people haven’t just gone out for lunch… except that there’s never been anyone there. I imagine that once a week the cleaners go up and make sure the place is all spic and span

When I’m not staring out the window distractedly, trying to keep myself from achieving anything noteworthy, I walk downstairs and across the road to the garage to get a snack. The office I pass on my left is a bit like the office across the road, only stranger. Rather than just being empty, the curtains are either drawn or pulled back every day, seemingly at random. Looking inside you can see a long, rounded table, with some conference calling kit in the centre, powered off always. The desk is ringed by high-backed leather chairs, but there’s never anyone sitting at them.

As I walked by today, I noticed that the chairs were missing, and the desk was covered in tiny scraps of paper, scissors and the kinds of tape dispensers we use to close big boxes in the warehouse… but there was nobody there. Nor was there any sign that the place had been opened over the last few days. I asked around, because some of our people don’t leave work until 1900, but they hadn’t seen anyone enter or leave in ages.

I wonder what kind of business could there be that has to work under those conditions. Is there any business that would have to open only at night and be closed by the next morning? It’s hard to think of any.

Vampire crèche. No doubt about it. The paper must have been from the teachers making the little vamplets make their parents cards.

Nothing else makes sense.