What’s Your Biggest Work From Home Fail? (Contest!)

#78

It’s really been a blessing having our dogs with us everyday during lockdown. Friends who don’t tire of us who are always ready to play and make us smile.

doggies
doggies.jpg4000×3000 1.23 MB

These friends at home do have boundary issues and never understand what it means when the light next to the webcam turns on…

Sam & Echo are each great motion detectors and keep us up to date on all traffic in front of the house, often prompting a quick ad-lib when a bark detected. “Yes, that’s an excellent color choice!” or “I absolutely agree.” That works fine most days.

I had forgotten to charge my bluetooth headset and was cautiously working with a desktop microphone and speakers. As the UPS driver pulled up across the street breaks squeeking Sam let out a single bark to challenge the intruder. Suddenly my client’s otherwise silent and invisible dog had to respond to defend his reputation as brave protector. Our girl Echo jumped in as backup to her tiny brother and the competition was on! After a couple back and forth volleys of bark bark bark I found my microphone and speaker mute buttons, calmed my friends and reactivated all my audio to find silence.

“Who won that round?”, I asked. Happily everyone laughed as my client’s told everyone that their dog doesn’t like the Amazon driver either since he never brings enough treats.

3 Likes
#79

@ktkundy My family thinks Zoom meetings are an invitation to say hi too! Good stories, thanks for the laughs. I’ve been on the other side of a student not being able to submit an exam and losing their work,…must have been horrifying!

1 Like
#80

My new boss joined the company, and was using his new office-issued computer. I was using my own personal gaming PC with multiple monitors. In our meetings I would often have the video chat on one monitor, so I could still see my colleagues while I shared my second screen to demonstrate something. However, in Slack, when someone else is screen sharing, by default the video window, including your own webcam video preview, disappears. I had forgotten this, and during a meeting when my boss was sharing his screen, I went for a good old nose pick. Like, really getting in there, going for gold, while he was talking to me. I was even talking to him while my finger was relieving the scratch in my nasal cavity.

Well, next meeting he casually mentioned he has multiple monitors, which means he probably saw the whole thing, though he never mentioned it. I was mortified. Lesson learned, I always turn off my webcam when someone else shares their screen, I can scratch, eat, and nose-pick to my heart’s content. Not at the same time though.

1 Like
#81

When Covid first started here in the US, the company I work for decided to put most of our work/activities on hold for 2 weeks. However we had to attend mandatory Zoom meetings for news regarding when we could come back and stuff like that.
In one of those meetings, I had my sister and 2 nieces over at my place since I was gonna watch my nieces for the rest of the afternoon.
Anyway, my sister was feeding my youngest niece and she made a mess so she decided she was gonna give her a bath. I was in the living room on the Zoom call when all of the sudden here comes my little niece running and screaming “Nooooooo!” because she didn’t want to take a bath.
She was so loud that my supervisor stopped talking and asked “Is everything ok ikari04warrior?” :rofl::rofl:

It was a bit embarrassing but pretty funny lol

Screenshot_20210319-161545_Samsung%20Internet%20Beta
Screenshot_20210319-161545_Samsung Internet Beta.jpg1080×2316 304 KB

4 Likes
#82

Easily the biggest work from home fail of the last year was when I was on a video call with my boss and a customer. My boss was the one speaking and I was on mute when my 3 year old daughter decided to come down the stairs that are directly in front of where our office and my desk is facing. Sure enough, she stumbles and falls face first down the stairs - while my boss is talking to the customer my face apparently has gone into shock on the video call and my boss had no idea what was going on. I didn’t get up from my desk because Mom was able to attend to my daughter quickly but for a solid minute or two my boss said my face was sheer fright and it created an awkward moment of what was going on.

2 Likes
#83

Come on @Chiquinho.

You may be a pensioner but you can not tell me that your wife never asked you to some work from home (or a honey do list ) where you had a fail. :wink:

1 Like
Weekend activities! (old thread reanimated)
#84

I was on a ZOOM call with my team that had dragged on and on and on. Finally I started saying “I gotta pee” over and over. Imagine my horror after I realize that my mic wasn’t MUTED! Luckily the ZOOM call ended shortly after.

1 Like
#86

In some things I fail daily, but I will not tell in public! :rofl::rofl:

2 Likes
#87

My WFH fail was an offspring and pet tag team disaster… having learned over several virtual meetings to prep and ensure good knowledge of how not to turn oneself into a baked potato (courtesy of others’ dastardly disasters), end a meeting accidentally or send a non-work related chat message to the entire group that was meant for only one individual - I was fairly confident that I could hold my own when it came to participating in a meeting with seniors from my organisation. What I hadn’t banked on were the external factors, namely children and pets. I’d done the hard work of ensuring my youngest was having his afternoon nap so I could undertake said meeting without distraction. All was well until our two cats decided a little playtime chasing around the kitchen was fair game. Initially, this seemed amusing to the other people in the meeting, if not mildly annoying for myself, as they both wizzed on and off camera. It all ended in me wearing my (thankfully only warm) beverage and some remnant of soggy cornflakes from my rushed pre-meeting breakfast. Shoeing the feline critters away, I’d managed to contain my disdain and slight embarrassment. Or so I thought. A wee little flatulence emitted from somewhere (I can’t say where) and my immediate seeking of reassurance that my mic was muted. Relief ensued following confirmation of muted status. At this point, I came into the meeting conversation to inform colleagues that all was well despite a little chaos. Stage Enter my youngest, who had woken from his slumber and must have been loitering for some time. Announcing his apparent observations, he shouted “Daddy, you farted!”. Microphone definitely not muted this time, some of the faces on screen apparently showing some amusement. My Son’s follow up comment then tickled the entire meeting when he shouted “You poo’d the bath…”. Quite ironic as it was he who had performed that particular feat the night before. Anyhow, mic safely re-muted, I then (very nearly) proceeded to get up to attend to environmental matters, suddenly realising that my lower attire may have pushed the situation to critical levels. I made the executive decision that boxer shorts should not be part of any professional meeting and proceeded to excuse myself from the it entirely. What a day of learning.

1 Like
#88

My biggest work from home fail is when we lost power during a storm that downed this tree and others, and interestingly it also struck a Spectrum van which services Spectrum Internet in the area :upside_down_face:

Power%20Outage
Power Outage.jpg2851×2138 2.49 MB

https://twitter.com/DezSantanaPhoto/status/1373245679871594496?s=20

1 Like
#89

I had a cat sleeping on my lap during a zoom meeting when she was startled by my other cat. Of course she had to jump to get away, but unfortunately dug her nails into my legs (upper inner thigh). I screamed loud enough that everyone on the call went silent to see what happened. I knew who owned cats after explaining the “Series of Unfortunate Events”.

1 Like
#90

Thank you @AnkerOfficial for this fun event!

First of all, for context I’m a college student that’s been stuck in the midst of doing all of my classes online. For hours each day I find myself sitting in front of my laptop aimlessly typing away at my assignments. A true “college experience” if I do say so myself!

For the most part, things have been going quite well, even though not ideal. But most definitely my biggest fail came for my organic chemistry class! I know what you’re thinking, a failed exam isn’t a “fail” like this but I assure you it’s much worse than you think! Anyways, I’m studying away trying to prepare the best that I can for this scam, even though I’m still certain I’m not going to do as well as I would like. About a half hour before the exam opens (it’s through an online website my university uses) I get a call from the electric company. Apparently, they just have to fix something something with one of the lines and my entire neighborhood will be without power for the next few hours, starting AT THE SAME TIME MY EXAM STARTS! Obviously at this point panic sets in. If I don’t have power, I don’t have internet. If I don’t have interent, I don’t take exam! The exam is only open for an hour for us to take so taking it later isn’t much of an option as the professors are very picky about timing! So what do I do? Throw everything I possibly can into a bookbag and quickly head into town! The only place that I could think of that would have public interent (I live too far away from the university to go there) was a local Burger King! So I frantically grab my bag, run into the restaurant and explain to the manager my situation. Thankfully, she was more than understanding and let me take my exam in the lobby! She even gave me a free drink, a sandwhich and wished me luck! How kind! I was thankfully able to log on and begin to get set up with just minutes to spare before the exam begun. In the end, I did much better on the exam than I had thought! So I guess everything worked out, but it definitely was an experience!

2 Likes
#91

There are some really funny stories here, keep them coming guys

3 Likes
#92

Reaching for my coffee but instead I grabbed my pin needle cactus with full force. Easy mistake.
My coworkers did not get a quick explanation as to why I was screaming and dancing around. Not my favorite way to wake up in the morning.

2 Likes
#93

I’ve got a simple one.
I thought my mic was off and my stomach was just being noisy. I knew why and so I let one rip. Everyone got quiet. I left the meeting and apologized later. We luagh about it now but when they said that people forget those moments I know that my group hasn’t forgotten it. I now use an in line mic mute button.

1 Like
#94

i was on the phone with an architect about a project we were posting online and my son ran into the room and said he had to go poop. i so hope he didnt hear that in the background. lol

1 Like
#95

Between working from home and homeschooling most of the past year, there have been several fails between me and my wife.
My wife was on a morning Zoom call and our daughter was supposed to be getting dressed and ready for her own 1st grade class Zoom meetup. I was in the kitchen and hear my wife talking them hear our daughter complain that she doesn’t have any clothes she wants to wear. I go to help and see that she wandered out in the middle of my wife talking on her Zoom call in nothing but her underwear. 🤦 Fun times.

Thanks for having this giveaway and for others sharing fail experiences.
Shared: https://mobile.twitter.com/courtenay27/status/1373665282275880962

Screenshot_20210321120043
Screenshot_20210321120043.jpg1080×1097 193 KB

1 Like
#96

#AnkerWork
My biggest work from home fail was that I had a sudden power failure due to a circuit breaker popping, causing my laptop & all the device attached to that surge protector to go off. My network closet was also on that same breaker, so everything went down at once.
I wish there was a power delivery device that includes a battery backup like a UPS to keep your devices powered during a sudden outage.

1 Like
#97

Great contest! :clap:

2 Likes
#98

Good luck to everyone that enters. :crossed_fingers:t2:

2 Likes