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

In my line of work, a dog incident would have been OK but having a work meeting with a member of the household present would be a scalable offence due to breach of confidentiality. Sitting on a sofa also would have been frowned upon. Not a great look, OP..

Whats that got to do with anything?

Agree. It's completely off. I would expect it to be raised and would be incredibly annoyed at my husband.

If you don't have an office space, which is fine, at least sit at a desk. I have secondhand embarrassment reading this.

Very unprofessional. Funny as well, yes, just this once. As a colleague, I would not want to watch you sorting out your dog more than once and waste my time on that. Going forward, you need a chair plus desk, a room with only you in it (no dog, no husband) and you need to tell whoever is in the house that you’ll be on a call. To be honest I am a little surprised, assuming you’re an adult, that this needs to be explained to you.

If I were your line manager, and this was the first time, I’d speak to you to ensure that you had a dedicated work space that was quiet, with a door to close, and that this incident was a one off. If you didn’t have a dedicated work space, I would expect you to come into the office every day. If your employer no longer has an office, you really need to think about where you work from.

Having the technology, flexibility and expectation to work from home is a massive benefit to many people, that has come out of the pandemic. WFM should not mean that professional standards are reduced.

It was on Have I Got News for you recently I think. Chap on a teams call using a laptop, must have thought his camera was off, wanders into the bathroom, and, well, sits down etc. Someone had to tell him his camera was on, and then there was some panicked shuffling. 🤣

People saying blur your background so people can't tell you're on a sofa - you can still tell. People lean back when they are on a sofa and have a relaxed angle and when they move the background doesn't always catch up and glimpses of sofa show through. I have a team member who is disabled and works from bed when they WFH. I don't like it but I wouldn't say anything because of the disability and they find bed more comfortable for long stretches but it's very obvious even with a background as you get glimpses of headboard.

OP this was a poor impression to give as others have said. You need to sort it out before your next meeting.

1 week in to a new job and taking a Teams call on the sofa is the worst thing thing you did.

I agree with others that the OP needs to be more professional with a proper desk (because DSE regs apply to WFH too) and the dog and husband out of the way but I was amused when one of our department heads, who's a very blokey ex military type, was accompanied on a Teams call by a fluffy white cat.

Tbf if she's only been there a week she probably has no real idea about the workplace culture. Unless it's a clown college or something. That's why it's always preferable to be over formal initially (in dress, punctuality, Teams etc).
Probably a good idea to apologise to boss and definitely necessary to change your WFH set up which sounds like a mess atm.

It really depends on your work place.

It depends on your industry, as others have said.
the main problem I think might be confidentiality; if you’re taking a teams meeting and your husband can hear, it would be a major major problem in my line of work.
i think it might be good to be in a room with the door closed from now on.

Depends really I hate to say this but for me it would throw into doubt whether you have the right environment at home to work from home.

I wouldn't be cross about the call itself but I would be having a discussion with you about whether working at home is appropriate. Make sure you close doors in future calls.

Why are you on a teams meeting on the couch?

Sorry but it doesn't look good, might be recoverable if you're super professional and very hardworking and proactive going forwards but honestly if i was in a meeting with someone dicking around with their dog with their partner singing in the background I'd write them off.

If it makes you feel better, during the pandemic one of my chickens jumped on my desk and bitchslapped me in the face with her wing. I did my very best to pretend nothing had happened and nobody mentioned it... 🐓

Keep a piece of blu-tak stuck to the top of your laptop, and ram it onto the lens if things go wrong.

Actually, it's a security tip to keep the lens blocked at all times when you don't positively intend to be seen.

Headphones are good, they will also allow you to concentrate on the meeting.

I like to sit in front of a plain wall or door, and close enough that there is nothing else for other participants to look at. Remove pictures, ornaments, furniture, coats etc from the field of vision. Put the camera slightly higher than your face, not on the desk, so they can't look at your chin or up your nose.

Someone was heard saying "my arse" during one I was on. Someone else thought they were privately messaging their friend asking did someone really just say that - they actually sent it in chat to everyone on that call, so anyone who hadn't noticed in the moment did find out.

One of the big bosses' cats was trying to dominate her attention on a company-wide call last week. Everyone was thrilled 😁

My first thought was a Hyacinth Bouquet fan (she did the BEST version!)

What is this???

How stuffy are they ? I work a corporate job and I wouldn’t think anything of the dog or singing husband.

My line managers husband once walked past her camera in his pants during my 1 to 1. She was mortified but I was laughing hysterically. She usually starts our meetings off with “I’ve told so and so to keep his trousers on”

What they will probably notice is you’re sat on a sofa in your living room. You need a work space set up - that’s the unprofessional bit you need to sort if working from home is going to be a normal routine.

I'd guess people are finding it funny because they're normal human beings.