Office employees across the UK have shared their video conference call horror stories while working from home.
As remote work continues to be the norm for many companies, virtual meetings via platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet have become an integral part of daily operations.
But there appears to be something about team meetings over video that can pave the way for unexpected and awkward incidents.
A recent discussion on Reddit’s r/CasualUK subreddit has revealed some of the strangest and most humiliating moments experienced by employees during virtual meetings – including one person who was defecated on by their cat on camera.
Earlier this month, a user – known as u/federal-ad-5190 – initiated the conversation by asking members of the forum about their ‘strangest Teams call’.
Office employees have shared the ‘strangest’ incidents they’ve experienced with co-workers and clients during Teams calls while working from home
Giving context to the question, they explained: ‘What’s the strangest behaviour you’ve seen (that isn’t criminal) on a video chat app?
‘I ask, as today one of my colleagues answered a Teams call (with camera on) whilst not wearing a shirt. Which I thought was taking the WFH wardrobe a little too lax.’
One person answered: ‘Colleague mowing the lawn with the camera on. You could see them going back and forth through their patio doors. This was even pre-pandemic!’
Describing a ‘super serious town hall meeting with a couple hundred participants,’ another individual recalled the mortifying moment his emotionally-distressed cat entered the room.
He said: ‘As the call was starting up, said cat jumps on my lap and I’m instantly assaulted with the unmistakable stench of cat poop. My beloved furry child had stepped in her own semi-liquid s*** and consequently smeared it all over me.’
‘In a panic I shout for help from my wife, “F***, I’m covered in cat s***. What the actual f***, there is s*** everywhere. F*****g h*** I have to present in a minute and she’s spreading it all over the room.’
‘A moment of silence follows and then a thin voice from my speakers, “Ahem, you may want to mute yourself while you deal with that… issue.”‘
Another said: ‘My colleague was looking down writing in her notebook and didn’t see some guy wearing only his [underwear] saunter across the background and look in the fridge for a couple of moments, take a swig of something and then talk to her.’
One person wrote: ‘Colleague mowing the lawn with the camera on. You could see them going back and forth through their patio doors. This was even pre pandemic!’
A recent discussion on Reddit’s r/CasualUK subreddit has revealed some of the strangest and most humiliating moments experienced by employees during virtual meetings
They added: ‘At this point she looks behind her, looks in horror at the screen and all our faces and closes her laptop.’
During a call with around twelve employees, one individual described how one of them ‘just lit up a cigarette,’ adding, ‘It’s their house so whatever but it made me wonder about work video call decorum. It just stood out as unexpected.’
Another employee wrote: ‘We had an award event via Zoom. The recipients knew they were getting an award from the bank CEO. One of the recipients decided it was okay to be topless sunbathing in the garden as they received theirs.’
One person shared: ‘We were introduced to a new, young colleague who admittedly did look like Borat – then the boss’s partner leaned into the camera and told him he looked like Borat, while laughing. We never saw nor heard from him again.’
Meanwhile, Samantha Hart, from Virginia, has poked fun at the recurring workplace struggle the plagues her whenever she starts a new job, after revealing how she is ‘always’ left in an uncomfortable position over the structure of email addresses.
