Disastrous Teams meeting - is it as bad as I think?

Send an apologetic email to all attendees. Explain that your dog thought it was playtime and your DH forgot about your Teams Meeting and emphasise that it won’t happen again.
Then allocate a quiet room where you can have these meetings, undisturbed and uninterrupted by the playful pooch and Pavarotti.

I would definitely send an apology email.

If you had been there months/years and they knew you were a hard worker/professional then it would be different.

But you did act massively unprofessionally and I’m quite surprised that you thought this behaviour was ok.

You’d been there 1 week and didn’t think to tell your DH you had a teams meeting or put the dog in another room and you were sat on the sofa.

I question your professionalism and I’m not even in your team.
You need to just prove yourself now.

I'd probably try to pass 'Rule Britannia' off as 'some noise from outside' if questioned.

Very unprofessional. What were you thinking? You need to be in a quiet space without interruptions for wfh. If this is how seriously you take an important meeting, it doesn’t reflect well on how you approach your work when the cameras are off.

At my firm and at a week into a job, doing this in front of clients would be a sackable offence. The appearance of professionalism is extremely important and it would make us look utterly ridiculous, to the point that we could lose business over it.

On an internal call as a one-off it could probably be laughed off. But it does suggest that you don't take your job seriously. At the most basic level, if you're working remotely you need to ensure you're working in a quiet, private room with a professional background. That's a 101 of remote work.

The fact you're "sat on the sofa", the fact you haven't shut your dog out and the fact that you haven't informed your DH you're on a work call would make me think you don't take it seriously. I get the impression your DH thinks its all a bit of cheeky banter, which makes me wonder if he takes your job seriously, too.

It's not so much the fact that its happened, its the fact that your behaviour all points to someone who doesn't think professionalism is important.

Yep it’s really bad. Definetly didn’t do yourself any favours.
You can’t wfh based on the sofa - not with pets and/or other people in the house. You need a proper work space.

It wouldn’t leave a good impression no. Working on the sofa isn’t great and is a bit sloppy, dog and husband in the room is a no no for me.
if I’m in a meeting so home I usually warn everyone in the house that I’m not to be disturbed

I personally hate seeing people sitting on their sofa for meetings. I’d also be pretty unimpressed that you hadn’t had the foresight to shut yourself in a room. Or that you didn’t have headphones on/in so any Tom Dick or Harry could hear the meeting. So all in all I’d be pretty unimpressed.

There was a Canadian (I think) MP who was completely starkers on a teams call while he got changed. The poor fellow thought his camera was off.

My cat and one of my dogs regularly barge onto my calls, and my disabled son sometimes does too, BUT I work for a small and very laid back charity and everyone knows I have a complicated home situation and need a lot of flexibility.

OP I’d find your dog wrestling with you hilarious but I’d be baffled by your husband. Having said that, if he couldn’t hear that you were on a call, hopefully the mic didn’t pick up his sudden joyful patriotics!

• Dog, not an issue, amusing!
• Sitting on the sofa - that would be very unusual in my work and I'd think 🤨
• husband in background not ideal but not the end of the world

You absolutely shouldn’t have been working from a sofa and your husband shouldn’t have been around. You should be wearing headphones if there is any possibility of background noise. The dog would bother me less than the sofa and singing husband and I would likely have a word about professionalism.

Don’t want to repeat what everyone has said about suitable working space etc

If it was my new team member, it would be the way you react after this happens which I’d find telling

If you brush it off as funny, and for others watching it probably would be depending on the meeting - I’d worry. If you’re clearly mortified and apologise, I wouldn’t as I know it’d be unlikely to be repeated.

This would have made my day. 😂 This was also pretty commonplace when everyone was working from home during Covid. Do you remember the man doing the bbc interview? It gave everyone a much needed giggle.

I would say though, that doing Teams calls from a sofa is probably not a great idea going forward if you want to be professional and for people to take you seriously. As a one off, it's probably not done much harm.

My own team - not a big issue.

Anything with other departments - we have strict rules how to work and that we have to have a dedicated area with the possibility to close doors if there are other people in the house.
So you would have had a call from managment about your work situation next and it could end with wfh withdrawn for you.

Mmm I don't think it's ideal. I work from home but do so in the spare room with the door shut. Very occasionally an errant cat will slip the net and sit on the windowsill behind me, or my OH will quietly sneak in with a cuppa for me, but I don't think it's very professional to be on the sofa with a dog next to you and also with your husband in full earshot.

You should be on an actual upright chair in a room with a closed door. It’s unprofessional to sit on your sofa and definitely to sit in an open space where things like this can happen.

I guess it has been forgiven this time but even wfh you need to have a more professional set up. I don't know how anyone can work on the sofa with the dog jumping all over them. Also my dh is never in earshot when I am working let alone during a teams meeting. Hopefully no harm done but if you want to be seen as professional then I would get a space to work with a desk and chair, preferably in a room where you can shut the door. Many people think those of us who wfh are shirkers, definitely not the case in my job. Don't give people a reason to think you don't take the job seriously regardless of where you work.

This sort of thing was funny in 2020. Now I find it incredibly tedious when meetings are interrupted by people's pets, partners or children.

And if you can't have a single meeting without being wrestled by your dog and having your partner sing loudly, it doesn't look like you've been doing focused work the rest of the time when the camera is off.

It was an important call, why on earth were you on the sofa? Unless that’s what everyone does, it looks really unprofessional. We had someone in our organisation do this and she always looked like she was slobbing around whilst the rest of us were sat at a desk.
and always have mic on mute unless speaking!

Rule Britannia of all things! I also would have also been thrilled to be on that call.

Honestly I think 80% of people (at a conservative estimate) would think the same so you’ll be fine.

Reminds me of a story I’ve heard that someone was on a teams call, needed to fart, so muted and then farted. Except he was already on mute so all he did was turn mute off, fart, and then turn mute back on.

Could be worse OP

You need to find a private work space - I wouldn't have been impressed that you were sitting on the couch. You need to set up a desk or table in a private space and have a sign on the door to stop your dog and other people coming in.

The dog is less of an issue than your dp imo. In my job, confidentiality is expected so having a non collegue in the room during a call would be a no no, though pets are fairly common. Depends what you do but in future id recimmend working somewhere privare with the door shut!

Why choose the sofa?

As pp have said a desk, chair and door shut is better.

I agree with everyone else - working on a sofa in a communal area of a busy household doesn’t give the impression you’re working properly.

I would email your boss and apologise for the disruption and say you haven’t got your home working space set up properly yet as it’s the first week but it will be shortly.

You wouldn't take your dog or your husband to work with you, nor should either be in your home office while you are working.