u/Jrinthecloset

I’ve been posting a series called “I Work The Night Shift” for a few days now and I’d love some advice on where else to post.

It’s more of a pass time during my irl night shifts, so I’m not sure what places are good for posting more hobby-esque works. Most of the options I know of are a bit more tidy and professional. I do want to go back and clean the series up once I’m way further down the line and feel like wrapping it up, but for now I’m more looking for ideas on where to keep sharing it as a continuous project.

I’ve been writing just to share with my friends/myself for most of my life (I’m a Forever Dungeon Master so that’s most of it LMAO) but my last few posts have been my first time actually posting anywhere publicly.

TLDR; I’m not super familiar with where people who write a lot for fun like to share their work.

Everyone on this sub seems very pleasant so I figured this was a good place to ask :)

I came into work the other night to a note at my computer.

“Pest Control coming in tonight, please make keys for room 402.” Great. 

I’m not the biggest fan of when we have service contractors come in overnight. They always expect me to know exactly what they need, like policies and such related to THEIR company, or some other on-site process my manager never told me about. If you’ve worked a night shift I’m sure you’re aware; we’re always the last to know about these things. 

The last time we had a pest control guy in he was supposed to stay two days. He left before the morning. On his way out he threw his room keys at me and yelled, “I was supposed to get a king bed, and I ain’t dealing with none of this spooky shit.”

When he turned around to leave he came face-to-no-face with one of our regulars (Mrs. Kindly) on her way inside. His eyes dropped to the floor and he quickly shuffled out to his car, repeating, “I told em no spooky shit.” all the way. Of course it was then my problem to deal with how upset Mrs. Kindly was. At least she didn’t have eyes I had to keep contact with while I calmed her down.

I made the keys for 402 and sat at the desk. It was around an hour after I had clocked in that the new pest control person finally came by. I think around midnight. 

She wasn’t the kind of person I expected to be in the best control business. Honestly if you had asked me what she did I’d tell you she worked at some kind of wizard themed book store. Instead of the usual overalls and baseball cap she had this HUGE dress on; A big ballgown with a hoop skirt like you’d see in those princess movies with a hand-knit shawl draped around her shoulders. The lower part of her face was covered with a surgical mask, the top with those round sunglasses with four rims that I think people wear at raves or something. Honestly my first thought what she had a Ren Faire in the morning or something.

She was pleasant as all hell too. She reached an arm out from under her shawl to shake my hand when she introduced herself.

“Ms. Phidippus.”

“Thank you,” I replied as I shook her hand, “Uh, Jack.” (I’m not really good with these formal types.)

“Jack,” she hummed, “I’m glad this lovely little place is where I’ll be staying for the while.”

Odd. Contractors are usually only here like a week max? I guess we must have a REALLY bad infestation.

The confused look on my face must’ve tipped her off. When I didn’t reply she continued, “I’m so sorry sweetheart! I assumed they explained by now! All Company locations have an on-site pest control. You know, keep the place running smoothly and all that. Catch the problems before they ‘bug’ you too much.” She winked under her sunglasses (I think).

I gave her the keys and pointed her to the elevator. This lady was pretty nice so I offered to help her carry her luggage up. She told me, “No need!”, picked up all four of her bags, and made her way upstairs. Not the first time I’ve seen someone with extra arms, probably not the last. I’m just surprised she was able to carry bags that big with one hand each.

Tonight was the first time I’d seen Ms. Phidippus since she got here (I think it’s been about three days. It’s hard to remember when your shift starts one day and ends the next morning.) She came by the desk to give me a gift actually. 

“I had a bit leftover,” She told me, “And I figured a little one like you should stay warm on these chilly nights”

I think I’m gonna like having her here. The addition of an on-site pest control department has been nice; I haven’t seen a bug since she started. Plus, the hand-knitted blanket has certainly made the lack of heating in the back room a lot less noticeable.

Intro

Part 1: The Elevators

You know how some hotels have those elevators that open two ways? The ones at my job open three. Well, two and a fraction is probably more accurate. 

The building has been here since the early 1970’s according to the internet (although I grew up here, and I swear until I finally moved back there was always construction going on in an empty lot). I’m inclined to believe the 1970’s thing considering the shit here you’d expect from an old building. The creaking from the old boiler, the mirrors not working sometimes, the rooms with no AC or Heating, I could go on. Since the 70’s we’ve had a number of “quality” updates to various things. Especially once the place got out by a bigger company. I appreciate the healthcare benefits that come with becoming part of a corporate chain, but having to translate every email from a new random language is kinda annoying. Thank god for google’s “detect language” feature.

The first thing we got after The Company bought the hotel were these new elevators. Being that I work nights, I never got to see the guy who installed them. I wish I did. Whoever it was had no idea what he was doing because they have all kinds of problems. The one on the other end of the building goes out on random days, some of the buttons don’t light up, etc. The most annoying elevator is the one that leads to the lobby. I hate that stupid thing, and yes it is personal at this point. The number of times I’ve tried to go to the bottom floor to use the vending machine and ended up in a vacant room on a random floor is ridiculous. You can’t even hit another button to try for the right floor, I have to get out and walk all the way down the hallway to find the entrance to the elevator where it’s supposed to be. At this point I try to just take the stairs. According to the morning shift guy this doesn’t happened to anyone else, so I guess it’s another night shift thing. Lucky me.

The main issue is the extra floors. The hotel has 5 floors. 1-4, and the employee-only floor (which is sort of a basement floor, the button inside the elevator just says “E”). It used to have 5 floors anyway. Now there’s all these new ones. The elevators don’t even have buttons for them, so I couldn’t figure out how many new ones there are if I wanted to. I’ve never ended up on one of the extra floors because I always take the elevator from the 1st floor. Getting on it from the other floors is where it gets weird. As long as it’s been to the first floor recently you’re usually fine. 

Every morning I have to make sure the elevators have all hit the 1st floor before 7:28, since the head cleaning lady comes in at 7:29 just before I get off work. Pam lives in an apartment on the employee floor, so she’s not safe from those stupid elevators. She doesn’t even take the same one every time, so I have to walk all the way to the other side of the building every morning to make sure I get both. If she’s running late she’ll take the lobby elevator, but if she got up early she’ll take the second one since it’s next to the break room where she likes to eat breakfast. 

I almost never forget to set the elevators, but when I do I can absolutely tell I have. Pam is punctual. She gets on the elevator 7:29 every morning, off it seconds before 7:30. If it hits 7:30 with no Pam, I know I forgot. 

Most of the times I’ve forgotten she just exits the elevator a few minutes late. She never tells me where she ended up, but when she’s late I’ll give her a little “Another floor?” from across the lobby, and she’ll reply “Another floor.” with a tired, slightly annoyed, sigh. One time I wasn’t so simple.

One morning I had gotten caught up with a guest who had called the desk phone complaining about “housekeeping” knocking on his door every night at midnight. I had kept trying to explain that housekeeping is gone by 11pm and not back until 7:00, but he wasn’t having it. Once I finally got him to hang up it was 7:32. No Pam. I looked across to the elevator, still no Pam. Once 7:34 hit I knew something was up. Of course the morning guy was late too, so I had to deal with that before I left. 

I hit the Up button and nothing happened. I hit the Down button, nothing happened. I hit both at the same time. The doors opened and GALLONS of salt water came pouring out all over the lobby floor- along with Pam. (Thankfully she was conscious already, I really didn’t want to give an old lady CPR). When she got to her feet and brushed off the seaweed, she looked at me silently. She didn’t speak, just gave me this sort of annoyed look. I cleared my throat, “Another floor?”

“Another floor.”

Link to intro: