New Delhi: Working from home inevitably means there are a lot of variables you can't control. By now, you've likely witnessed someone's pet, kid, significant other or loud neighbor interrupt a work call. Maybe you've even been that person yourself.
The good news? You're not alone. We're all juggling distractions - and some are harder to keep at bay than others. Here are a few funny moments of virtual calls that have taken a turn for the worst that will, hopefully, make you feel better about your own cringe-inducing moments.
Luckily, a laugh was often just what we needed during this pandemic in order to keep us semi-sane.
1. Pay More Attention
There was a group presentation during one of my tutorials and this girl presented first on behalf of her group. They prepared a Google Doc so she was sharing her screen. After her part, her other group mates wanted to add on but then the screen changed to a game instead of the Google Doc, LOL!
Turns out the girl totally forgot that was she was sharing her screen and just went on to play a game after her part. The whole class started laughing (including her group-mates) and the professor just went, “I’m sorry, it’s a game now?”
2. Zoom Meetings Were Made to Mute
There should be songs about the magical mystery mute button these days since it always seems so elusive. Didn’t I have myself on mute? I thought I muted myself! Why was I not muted?! It’s a Zoom experience all too familiar to many of us. This next one could get you working to become even better at exercising those mute button muscles.
Just remember I was in a Zoom meeting in the middle of a 68-person college zoom meeting – and I wasn’t muted!!! send the meteor!!!!
That doesn’t necessarily sound so bad for a conference call, but I was talking to my sister's cat.
To clarify, I said the words “no mama” to my cat, and everyone heard that. Even yesterday, when our office stand-up meetings were happening, one of our senior's kid started shouting, well funny yes. After that, I was just hearing some kids shouting in zoom meeting.
When your child says something in the background and everyone in your work meeting can hear them, it’s generally not that big of a deal. Others in your team will tend to understand these things, and we’re all adjusting to this new “virtual” normal. However, if more than one member of your family happened to burst into your office, and your Zoom meeting was actually an interview on the BBC, it might just become one of the most popular viral videos of the year.
3. Pet Peeves in Zoom Meetings
An anonymous story was shared on the website ScaryMommy. If you’re not a fan of potty + pet humor, feel free to skip to the next one. Also, just a reminder to keep your pets with IBS far from your Zoom meetings or computer cameras any time you’re on a conference call.
Here it goes, so cover your eyes and plug your nose:
“My adult cat pooped on the dining room table…the same table the computer was set up on during a Zoom meeting with my son’s school speech pathologist” (*facepalm*)
4. Model Material
My sister shared one of her Zoom funny story with me she said, “On a Zoom call with my friends, I’d set my custom background to a really embarrassing old photo of me – the sort where I’d taken it from the angle that gave my most exaggerated triple chin – to make my friends laugh. Of course, I forgot to reset it before hanging up, which meant that, come to my next work meeting, I of course joined with the same background. Needless to say, my boss didn’t find it as funny as my friends had.”
5 Pantless meeting
When I was interning in another company, one of my workmates in my team was using the phone for a meeting due to webcam issues. He’d propped his phone up somewhere on the desk, and all was going well until he accidentally nudged his desk and the phone fell onto the floor – revealing that while he had a smart work shirt on, he hadn’t bothered with pants at all. Nice Y-fronts, though.
6. That’s not my name
One of the funny zoom story told by my cousin during our family get together. While she was in a Zoom call with friends one night, they had all been playing a drinking game and had taken it in turns being the host. While one of her friends was hosting, she’d changed everyone’s display names as a joke.
She assumed it only kept that name for the particular call where it was changed since it had been changed by her – it turns out she was wrong.
Long story short, she said, “I bet my boss was equally confused and unimpressed on Monday morning when Miss Chanandler Bong joined the weekly briefing.”
These are some weird and funny zoom meeting stories, you can tell your funny zoom meeting story to us too.
