Freelancing Horror Stories

As we gear up for the spookiest time of year, we’ve been asking around the office for the scariest freelancer stories we could find.

As a freelancer or sole trader, these stories are sure to send shivers down your spine. So, take your place around the Caunce O’Hara campfire and get ready to be truly petrified…

The Haunted Extension

It was a blustery Autumn day, not unlike today. Crunchy leaves littered the ground outside the window of Clive’s home office. It was only 4 O’Clock but it was already getting dark as moody storm clouds loomed overhead.

A clap of thunder rumbled in the distance. Inside, Clive was putting the finishing touches on an architectural drawing, one of many that he had completed that day. But something about this one was different, almost sinister.

The client was very particular and he felt an impending sense of doom whenever he looked at the drawing. Something about it just didn’t seem right. He looked back over his measurements and checked and double checked again. Everything seemed fine, but something still felt strange. He stared at the drawing, trying to put his finger on what was wrong.

The silence was broken by the sound of his home phone ringing. Clive was startled, not least because no one had called his home phone in years. Steadying his hands, he picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

Silence.

“Hello?”

He could hear breathing on the other end of the line and the sound of the rattling breath made his hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He slammed down the phone and returned to the drawing, annoyed with himself for getting scared by what was obviously a prank call.

He dismissed this eerie feeling as tiredness and rolled up the drawings and deposited them in a postage tube. Keen to get the drawings in the last post, he pulled on a coat and braved the storm outside to trek to the Post Office.

…

Two months later, Clive had all but forgotten the eerie sketch when he was startled by the sound of the phone ringing once again. The bottom of his stomach sank as the voice on the other end of the line screamed down the phone.

The drawings he had provided were incorrect and the client’s builder had built their extension too long.

The cost to correct the mistake would be a stomach-churning £47,000. Luckily for Clive, he had Professional Indemnity Insurance, so this little freelancer horror story didn’t turn into an absolute nightmare.

Moving Furniture

Ever since she had moved into her new home office, Caroline felt that something wasn’t quite right. She wasn’t one to believe in things like Feng Shui, but the flow of her home office was all off. She was constantly tripping over things that weren’t there a moment before and nothing was ever where she left it. It was almost as if something supernatural was playing with her.

If she had been a more superstitious person, she might have entertained the idea that paranormal forces might be at work, after all, she did live in an old Victorian house. A friend joked that her desk was pushed up against a door that was painted shut, and perhaps this was blocking the ghost’s route. She laughed this off, but the blocked door played on her mind.

One day, after a glass of water mysteriously spilled on the hardwood floor, she decided it was time to rearrange her office. She didn’t have much room to manoeuvre the large desk, but she decided if she could clear the room it would give her enough space to swing the desk in front of the window.

She piled the contents of her desk onto a small trolley and then set to work shuffling the desk inch by inch towards to the window. Once the furniture was in the right place, she returned to the hallway to collect the trolley and rolled it back into the room.

When she reentered the room she let out a little scream as she saw the painted-shut door had swung open exposing the dusty, bricked-up entrance to the neighbour’s house. The sight caused her to lose balance and the trolley jolted forwards.

Her laptop and screen tumbled onto the floor and smashed.

The real fright came later when she learned it would cost £3,194 to replace the items. Luckily for Caroline, she had Office Contents Insurance, so a quick call to Caunce O’Hara meant that she was soon back to work.

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