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

#143

As we are waiting for the new Top Gun film to be released, we decided to watch the original, again!

The next day my wife playfully walks past my home office door and shouts “Take me to bed or lose me forever!”

Clearly she hadn’t planned on me being in a work video conference with some of our top people from both our company and a client. Without skipping a beat one of the senior client people said “Tig, I think that’s your time to leave, you have more important things to be doing!”

Someone took a screen grab of the look on my face, it still haunts me!

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#144

So my biggest work from home fail is when the company laptop (as is always the case most days) decided to play up - it would freeze midway through the day or decide to get a mind of its own and start flipping between flight mode and WiFi connection. This particular afternoon I had a very important call to a major client in the US and I was alright until 5 minutes to the call starting I received a pop up notification that the laptop had to restart and the timer started to countdown to restart. I panicked, it was too late, at 2 minutes to call start to cancel or notify my client without seeming like a total newbie. As the count down progressed I had no choice but to type in the chat room that I had to log off just as the client came on video I disappeared and the laptop restarted. I ended up missing a critical update delivered right at the start and had to sheepishly apologise to the client for my delay in joining the meeting due to network problems.

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#145

Actually don’t know where to begin with this one! Perhaps not the funniest, but has to be the most painful, was ending a very long contract with someone I had known for literally decades. The whole meeting had to be done via TEAMS which is I think the worst of all the virtual meeting set ups possible- I wish we’d tried just about anything else!

The first issue was the distorted robot sound, followed by everyone being made really really tiny- like, smaller than normal for some reason, add this to the 2 second delay and freezing every now and then…

You’d talk in length on a subject- something really quite important and detailed. You’d put in all the effort, all the emphasis, all the information…you’d look and squint to see a reaction- worried the other person had maybe stopped breathing or something (like I say; the reason for the meeting itself was painful enough in the first place!) and you’d get a sudden fear, element of doubt maybe, that the other person had been stunned to silence or something…then it would hit you; the screen had frozen and actually there was no response because no one had heard a single word you’d said, in fact they’d assumed you’d either not been bothered with what they’d said and had taken offence or had simply left, so they’d moved on.

Then there was the background…oh the background! When your top morphs in and out of whatever sea-side or greenary you’ve decided on that morning…really actually more distracting when you do this- please don’t! I have no words to describe adequately how…just bizarre it looks when your body and part of your ear and your hair…it’s gelling with the forest you’ve selected…or the sunset is clearly matching your eyes…like, actually matching your eyes…no really; your eyes are now blood red and they’re scaring everyone! People! Please just stop with the trying to hide your background- your actual background cannot be that bad, even if you are calling from a bin-shed and your house is full of piles of ironing!

Noise from neighbours is another issue- especially if you’ve ever tried to attempt online therapy. It’s horrible to sit talking, getting to a poignant moment, only to have a drill suddenly spark up and destroy perhaps many sessions of build up, all because some DIY enthusiast has decided right here and now, at 5pm on a Thursday afternoon is exactly when he needs to put up that shelf…then all the other neighbours attempt to block this noise with their music, or worse- they are inspired enough to also start up their DIY project… meeting? You think you’re going to get any sort of work done in a noise hell situation like that?! That’s even before you realise their drilling has run straight through the electricity cable…

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#146

I was on a Teams call with my whole team, my boss and the guest speaker for the day was our boss’ boss. I had just asked a question and left myseful unmuted in case a follow-up was necessary.

Now… I just started playing the Ukulele and I liked having it on my desk for during calls, when I could just noodle around to keep me busy…

That’s when I heard the scariest words ever… “Uh… Thomas?.. you know everyone can hear you right?”

I had been practicing my C to G to A chord changes and was humming along with each chord…

As I scrambled to mute, I dropped the ukulele, it broke a string, I swore and then said - as if that was going to fix it - “oh… sorry… My fingers get restless…”

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#147

Big meeting with a new customer, we’re all putting on our we are great pro’s schtick. I’m part way into the introductions and you can see my cat walk behind me then be loudly and visibly sick. I ended up blurring the backgroud and having to sit through an hour long meeing with a horrible smell. Still as ice breakers go it was a new one.

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#148

I am very fortunate, I tend to have fairly robust infrastructure at home, working in IT certainly helps this!

But one day when my missus was working from home, the Internet kept dropping out, cannot be me as I have been working from home for 12 months due to Covid19!

It was the Wireless Access Point, the one built into my BT router, yes I know pretty rubbish! So I had to bite the bullet and purchase a new wireless system if I was going to do this it has be a mesh system where I can roam between Access Points.

I ended up with a robust almost bullet proof system that now extends into the back yard! A nice side effect! So come summer I know where I will be working from!

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#149

My biggest WFH fail has been allowing my kitten (Pixel - currently 10 months old) to walk around my desk freely whilst I’m working during the day. She is small enough that she doesn’t appear on webcam very often, however she has learned that if she sits up behind my monitor she can see me and usually gets some kind of interaction or picked up and moved away from the wires. One day on a fairly important client video call she popped up next to me webcam and of course made me laugh in the middle of my client talking about their financial pressures. Thankfully they saw the funny side when I sent them over a picture to show them exactly what had caused my outburst of laughter (image linked below). I’m just super grateful that they saw the funny side!

PXL_20201214_114639670%20(1)
PXL_20201214_114639670 (1).jpg2436×1741 549 KB

https://twitter.com/Magpie_F1/status/1375126417214685184?s=20

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#150

I was on a zoom meeting working from home and my brother tried to crawl behind me so as not to disturb BUT HE DIDN’T REALISE EVERYONE COULD SEE THE FLOOR BEHIND ME AND ALL OF MY CO-WORKERS WATCHED HIM DRAG HISELF ALONG THE CARPET. He realised this once I shouted at him to get out of the frame yet proceeded to slowly crawl past. So not only was someone seen crawling behind me but my coworkers saw and heard me shout at my brother. From then on I always have my mute button on whenever I’m not speaking.

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#151

My work from home fail was during a zoom work meeting and my significant other was out doing some chores on the farm and had not latched one of the farm gates all the way. Into my office comes our 400lb boar snorting and romping in the middle of my presentation to my team. He wound up under my desk and disconnected my rig luckily so the embarrassment ended quickly, but I have yet to live it down with the co-workers.

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#152

I was running late to a meeting and I hadn’t even put a shirt on, so I enter the Zoom call with my camera turned off, but when it was my turn to talk, instead of unmuting myself, I turned on my camera. Very embarrassing and my colleagues tore me apart for it. In the end it was funny.

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#153

At least you got the job

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#154

Well my work fail is as follows…

I’m on a video call with a new client. And so I’m trying to impress on our first call. I work from home as a rule and on this occasion I was alone as my wife was at work in a local foodstore. Everything was going well. At this point I should mention that we’ve got a dog. He’s a large Bernese Mountain Dog but has a great nature and is usually quite happy just to lounge around throughout my working day.

He chooses this moment in time to want to go out outside for a wee. He comes up to the side of me and nudges me. Now on the video call you can’t see him at this point but what you can see is my body being jolted side-to-side as he nudges me with his head (he’s very strong). I’m trying to ignore him, which I shouldn’t do really. So he ups his game a little bit and decides to jump up with his front paws on my desk, one paw knocks the mouse, the other paw lands on my keyboard. In doing this he ends up sharing my second screen with the video call, and on that second screen is my Facebook page which shows a friend of mine having just suggested that we pack in work and go for a beer. This was obviously in jest because of the lockdown but a little embarrassing when it gets shared on your video call. At this point Brody, being a big dog, decides to do a big bark right down the microphone. I have to apologise to everybody, quickly revert the screens to the way they were and ask for a 5 minute break while I take him out.

When I came back I thought “will they still be there?”, “will I have lost my client?”. On my return and getting back into the video call I’m happy to say that I was looking at a bunch of happy, smiling faces and was told that the mornings entertainment had cheered them all up in such serious times. We went on to have a very productive meeting. Now when I’m on a video call with them they always insist on seeing Brody and saying “hello”.

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#155

My biggest fail, was my first Teams meeting with my new team. We had just got our new puppy so decided to stay close by so he wouldn’t make lots of noise during the meeting/call, so was working in the dining room. It was all going great until he decides to pull the laptop power cable sending my laptop hurtling to the floor, that I could cope with, the horror was him exposing my dresser for business top half, and my lounging around at home bottom half (shorts, socks and slipper) no a cool look​:flushed:. I get a ribbing from my tram at every meeting :man_facepalming:

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#156

One of my biggest work fails -
I was on a call with my director for over 3 hours working on a complex and large file and made hundreds of amendments.
My wife stormed into the room shouting “why the **** didn’t you put the clothes out on the washing line? Now it’s raining”.
Embarrassed, I quickly muted my mic and turned off my camera and explained I have been on a call for over 3 hours so I haven’t had the time to do it.
She was still shouting and screaming and she grabbed my work laptop and turned it off by holding the power button.
I had not been saving the work as I went along due to the size of the file and time taking to save it was around 5 minutes each time.
I lost all of the amendments and I didn’t log back on the rest of the day.
My director asked me the following day, what had happened, I had to blag it and told him my laptop died and wouldn’t turn on and we lost all of the amendments.
We had to go through the gruelling process again and he didn’t quiz me on what my wife said.

How embarrassing!!!

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#157

Picture the scene, beginning of the pandemic working from home, in my home office (aka spare bedroom) on a teams call with the wider team, camera on, 10 minutes into the meeting and I hear the doorbell ringing. I excuse myself from the meeting to greet the postman who I am expecting with my Amazon delivery, all is good.

Re-join my colleagues who at this point are all in fits of laugher, like I have just must the punchline to a good joke only to find out I am the punchline…

My webcam was placed on top of my monitor, I exited left not giving any thought to the fact I was sat in my boxer shorts and the mirrored wardrobe to the side of the shot caught me in full view as I walked to take delivery of my parcel :frowning:

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#158

Had a long video call already running for about 1 hour. At some point, I got lazy and put my legs up on a cabinet beside my desk. Ten minutes after I decided that I would need a little bit of exercise and started walking around in the room. I got only to stand up and take one step as both my legs had fallen asleep. I kissed the ground as my legs gave up on me and had to climb back up using my arms on the edge of my desk. Everything while my webcam was running. The silence in the call was horrifying.

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#159

Not too embarrassing but there was one time that I was in a zoom meeting and leaned back too far on my chair and fell back with my feet coming over my head. I just got up like nothing ever happened. #AnkerWork

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#160

I was on a Zoom call - a video interview - when my computer blue screened. It took at least 5 minutes to recover, and by that time everyone had hung up. Luckily, it was near the end of the interview and the hiring manager indicated they asked all the questions they needed to ask. Lesson learned was to print or jot down the call in info for the Zoom call/meeting to be able to call back in quickly as your PC recovers.

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#161

If you are doing a Zoom call near a bathroom, tell your spouse/roommate to please keep the door closed when flushing the toilet.

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#162

Failure for the company, big win for me!

Went on a Zoom-based job interviewed. Three senior executives were on video on the call, and I noticed 3 others lurking in the background on audio only, including a name I recognized as the president of the company.

Half way into a 1.5 hour video interview, we took a short coffee break. Everyone left video for a few minutes, but the president of the company left his mic open! I heard him talking to someone else in the room (unclear who), but I heard him say “I want this guy on our team; do whatever it takes!” Needless to say, my heart-rate doubled at that point!

The rest of the interview went well, and I ended up negotiating a huge pay increase in the offer from the company. Ultimately I turned the job down, but it was fun knowing their big fail could have been a huge win for me!

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