Working from home disasters

[Overmydeadbody456]

Working from home today. Childcare issues in that both grandparents (who usually share childcare on Fridays) are both poorly so have had to keep DS (3) at home with me today. Told manager who was fine with it

I had to make an important call to a client . Bribed DS to stay quiet for 2 mins. He put his finger over his mouth as if to do the shush sign, which made me think he understood. Dialled. As soon as the client answered, DS, sat right next to me, let out the loudest &longest high pitched scream.
I couldn’t apologise enough to the client, they didn’t sound impressed!

Anybody else had anything embarrassing or mortifying happen while working from home?

This was classic.

I think it’s pretty common these days I wouldn’t worry. Lots of ppl where I work wfh on a regular basis so you hear lots of dogs/partners/kids in the background. Numerous times I’ve to answer the door in the middle of a meeting and converse with the window cleaner!

When I got my puppy he was being very good lying under my desk while I was on the phone
Just as a client answered he sunk his needle sharp little teeth into my big toe and I gave a loud yelp that I had to turn into a cough.
Not sure I got away with it though

I'm sorry OP but this has made me chuckle. Definitely something one of my toddlers would do. 'Got it Mum, I'm definitely going to be quiet, go ahead and dial... AHHHH'!

Surely the client saw the funny side or at the very least is understanding of the situation. I know I would have been and I don't know any other professional that wouldn't!

Sorry but that's hilarious

Next time don't mention it

Just put Peppa Pig on and ignore him

That clip is hilarious, @Pollywollydolly - the horror on the wife's face as she comes racing in!

He could have handled that so much better though - I don't like the way he kind-of pushes the child back . . .

I’m pretty sure quite a few people on the other end of the phone have heard the tail end of my disagreements with our house rabbit 😳

My dog seems to feel the need to join in my conference calls! Luckily, the majority of my colleagues seem to be dog lovers so no one minds. My bosses cat often walks across the screen when we're on a call. One of my friends walked into her husbands study in her dressing gown and planted a kiss on his head... she didn't realise he was video conferencing!

Oh god, I’d die. Really unprofessional. My 3 yr old is a bit unpredictable but for a client call no way would I have her in the room. She’d be on the couch, watching TV with snack bribes.

@VioletCharlotte
My oh sometimes works from home and I have to try and keep the kids away from him and quiet when he has to make calls. Not sure he'd cope if I wasn't here to distract them as the toddler loves his laptop and when she sees him on it she runs over to try and press buttons!

Schoolboy error there. Never tell them what you are doing or how important call is. They smell desperation 😉
Disney Channel (or similar) plus a bowl full of dry Cheerios.
Reset and do the same for next call you have where quiet is needed.

I am very very lucky in that all my clients are lovely and understand that I work from home and life is a bit of a juggle.

I have had my daughter invited to wave hello to everyone in a management meeting, clients understand when I had occasion to yell 'flush! wash hands' and the dog generally barking if anyone calls when the post arrives. I now have a headset which I can easily mute (and daughter is older) so have some pretence of professionalism.

More embarassing was when I sashayed into my husband's office doing a silly dance and singing and not realising he was on a video conference call. People are more forgiving about small children than overweight 40 year olds :D

I was working from home, at lunchtime thought I would have a quick hack around the block on the horse. Fell off and broke my back, lessons learnt there. Working from home is for working

My partner does a lot of very early morning calls. He was by himself at home so decided to do it in bed. He thought he had turned the camera off, but hadn't. He was in bed in his vest, the conversation had got heated resulting in my partner giving someone a dressing down over some performance issue. They must have been pissing themselves, thinking 'wanker'.

My son has ASD and is obsessed by how long a call will take. The other week he was dancing around me, trying to talk to me. I was trying to give him the eye and doing a go away hand signal. Finally I took the camera off and went on mute and shouted 'go away'. The only problem is I had headphones in the Jack and for some reason the mute then didn't work. Everyone heard.

Also had the dog blowing off on my feet....loudly.

Had to explain / apologise to someone on the other end of the phone about the dog's snoring. You can hear him through walls.

Yes, was on a call, husband and daughter being noisy so i couldn't concentrate . Said I'd call back, ende call and went and shouted SHUT UP SHUT UP IM WORKING at them.

Picked up my phone to dial back in, I was still on the call!!!!!

I also had my mum inadvertently come on a video conference call once. She was struggling to understand that she was actually on camera!

We got Skype with video calls when we were all given new laptops. I had an early morning meeting (8am) and my DH was sleeping in the living room where I usually work (due to illness not because we had a row). I thought it would be kinder to do the call from my bedroom and not wake him up, so took the laptop upstairs. Dialled into what I thought was a phone conference using Skype, whilst lying in bed topless, then realised I'd not disabled the video stream. My (thankfully female) director was first on the call and got an eyeful of my tits she was sensitive about it and quickly advised me how to turn off video

Yes, I WFH quite a lot as self employed.

I had a Skype conference where I'd bribed DD to stay quiet, she tiptoed in, and then stage whispered "I'M TRYING TO BE QUIET MAMA BUT I NEED A POO"

A client who called me (admittedly it was after 6pm) just as we started the bedtime routine meltdown, during a stage where transition upstairs to the bath was apparently akin to oppression. Client said later she didn't realise a child could scream quite that loudly!

Missing the point of the thread but I think saying you're working from home when you've got your child(ren) with you just perpetuates the idea that people are slacking when they're working from home and ultimately harms the progress of flexible working and therefore the gender pay gap.

The time by Boss called me on MS Teams for the first time and none of us realised the video was automatic was fun.

He nearly got good eyeful of boob.

I’ve a few colleagues who think their colleagues are cool and ‘understand’. They really really don’t, unless it’s out of hours, and do think it’s crap and unprofessional to have family milling around your work. My boss says ‘hold on a minute’ and shouts ‘I’m on a call’ to her kid. It’s really really not ok.

My laptop camera is covered since I discovered it turns on automatically. From time to time, I do 24/7 on-call, and I have worked from bed in the early hours. Even if I were fully clothed (which I probably wouldn't be,) I still don't really want anyone to see me when I look like I'very just been woken at 3am (because I have just been woken at 3am.)

@Overmydeadbody456

Whats the op meant to do, lock the child in the garden for the day? Life isn't perfect and most people are aware of that.

A senior manager once called me (I didn't like him - total creep) while working from home last summer. He was in the bath !! Could hear the echo sound of the bathroom - it was on speaker phone - and occasional splashy / moving in water sound. All very weird.