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?

My cats loudly miaowing during Friday conference call which set of my bosses husky and various other dogs. Only happened once and we all had a laugh which was nice!

How is that different to saying to a child "just a minute, I'm on a phone call"?

Because it’s a working day, and you’re meant to be working. Not supervising small children. Which is actually a full time job... or we wouldn’t have nurseries and nannies and child minders!

My partner works from home most to the time. I was at home with my toddler and popped to the loo, unusually he didn’t follow me, but went to the fuse box and turned off all the electricity whilst my partner was on a video conference. He was honest about what happened and the other attendees found it hilarious!

have you noticed that some of these calls are international & done in the middle of the night or very early in the morning - exactly how & where would you get childcare at that time? A lot of offices now are expected to be home based rather than centralized as they were in the past - & as stated by lots of pp there are reasons why organised childcare is not available - especially in emergency - & many companies cannot rearrange meetings that quickly - so some of these unprofessional criticisms are really daft/unfair/unreasonable/not related to real life situations - after all people do drink coffee/have social conversation/ have other work related drop in conversation - interactions/and even lunch breaks when they are office based/& consider those driving for work!

I was once on a conference call when a colleague who thought she was on mute shouted to her boyfriend ‘no I don’t want any fucking toast!’

My best one is when my cat woke up and decided to walk across my laptop and stick his face in the camera, but that got plenty of laughs. It helps that he is cute!

Most of these I'd find understandable or possibly cute but I'm not sure I'd want to hear someone giving instructions about flushing and washing hands on a conference call. That could definitely be dealt with after you've finished the call.

Male colleagues will often pause on a phone call to answer their mobile with "just a minute, I'll call you back, I'm on the other line" and that's just considered to be reasonable because they're so very busy (I always put my mobile on silent if I'm on Skype / landline)

That's far more unprofessional and twenty times as annoying!

I was on the phone to a social worker discussing a possible safeguarding issue and she decided we needed a case conference. The only possible days she could do were when I wasn't normally working.

I left the phone on the desk and ran downstairs to grab the calendar to check that there was nothing non-work related on the dates in question. My 16-week old terrier puppy came downstairs and ran past me and out into the garden as I went out into the hall.

When I got back into the spare room/office, I couldn't find the phone. The fucking puppy had somehow got it off the desk and legged it out into the garden, where he proceeded to chew it to fuck.

I had to ring the (somewhat confused) social worker back and explain and apologise. Thankfully, she thought it was hilarious. Every social worker from that team heard the story and I got sick of saying "Yes, I'm the one with the puppy that ate the phone ..."

I bloody loved that dog. He nearly drove me bonkers when he was a pup (who knew that even small puppies can be really good at climbing?), but I bloody loved him.

“I think what some of you are missing here is that the Mum who tries to juggle wfh and a childcare emergency will often go on to work long into the evening after the child is in bed. An employer who is flexible and allows employees to work around the needs of their family will reap the benefits in the long run“
Exactly @VioletCharlotte
My employer knows the hours I work outside of my contracted hours - I worked to 11.30pm on Wednesday - unpair- to ensure a customer wasn’t impacted the next day. Yes I didn’t need to, but I did. I do it regularly, as is the norm in my industry (banking). So when I have days like today and I need to take a bit of time, back, then that’s absolutely fine.
If I had a day’s unpaid leave like some have suggested , then my work still needs to get done, it would impact another colleague who doesn’t get as much as their work done, so the employer has still lost out financially.
I would actually argue I got more done today with a toddler about than being in the office, what with all the pointless phone calls from marketers, tea breaks, bored colleagues coming over to chat etc

I would actually argue I got more done today with a toddler about than being in the office

Seriously??!!!! If that's true, I don't think it shows you in a very good light. I'd keep that quiet

I think a one-off emergency at home with children, with approval from your employer, is completely fine and show you are not abusing the system because you told them.

People working in pjs, underwear or half naked are the ones who are really unprofessional and the reason why employers are reluctant to let people "work from home".

If one of my team was pulling a stunt like that, and go on a video call from home in his underwear, that would be the last time he is ever allowed to work from home.

Even someone with kids in the background is not professional at all. It might be ok if your clients are the local mums, but I know quite a few people who wouldn't be impressed. They end up giving the contracts to someone else.

@justmyview I think my employers would disagree, based on my recent appraisal score. But thanks for the advice

Sorry @MorondelaFrontera but I have to disagree with you there.

I work in my pjs or slobby "house clothes" on days that I am WFH and my employer couldn't give a fig as long as my work is done. Plus, I don't actually announce what I'm wearing if/when we speak during the day.

I would go so far as to say that I tend to work better when I am comfy instead of wearing horribly restrictive suits/work dresses.

your days of wfh could be numbered

Er, no. Many employers are effectively forcing their staff to wfh as desk ratios are 5 or 6/10. And even being in the office will only guarantee a chair not a desk.

I think all the 'so unprofessional' posters are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. There's nothing inherently more unprofessional about a child making unexpected noise than a cat, dog or any other interruption, but the perception that any sign of the presence of a child instantly conveys unprofessionalism is what's really damaging to working parents, particularly mothers.

A worker who makes the effort to fulfil their responsibilities even when they come up against unexpected complications should be admired for their commitment. It's all very well to say 'take a day's leave', but if you have meetings and calls scheduled, surely it's more professional to go ahead with them even with the risk of a minute's interruption than to cancel them all at no notice and expect everyone else to wait. I would much rather deal with a minor inconvenience of a noisy child for a couple of minutes than rescheduling altogether.

Criticising people (again, usually women) for trying to fulfil all their responsibilities against the odds seems perverse and unproductive.

Pursefirst

If no one knows, there's no harm done, but the posts above were talking about accidentally showing underwear or tits. That should not happen!
It depends on your job as well. If you are on the phone, you sound better if you are not laying down on your bed.

I don't understand the comment about horribly restrictive suits - why do people buy uncomfortable clothes? My work clothes are as comfy as my casual ones, they cost more so I don't wear them at home, plus I like looking casual, but it's not a chore to put them on!

There's nothing inherently more unprofessional about a child making unexpected noise than a cat, dog or any other interruption

of course there is, but it depends what supplier you are calling. If you are calling someone selling cupcakes or sweet cones, you don't expect the same as you would expect from a solicitor.

If you are trying to solve your mortgage or issue about a house you are buying, being interrupted by kids playing is not professional.

If you end up seeing a builder in his underwear, you won't be as keen to employ him to do your bathroom.

I used to work from home a lot and always made sure that I was sitting at my desk for calls (it felt more professional that way) and that I was washed and dressed and presentable to the outside world. But that's just my preference. Partly because I feel that I have my "work head" on and partly because some of my employers/clients often swap to video conference at the very last minute. No-one believes the "my camera isn't working" excuse. You're expected on screen and to look presentable. I'd always get ready a little earlier to make sure I had time to check there was no washing drying in the background etc before the early morning video calls started. And I had my coffee ready and a big glass of water.

My favourite is being on a video call with a client who was working from home (at her kitchen table) and halfway through our meeting, I saw her husband crawling on his hands and knees on the floor behind her trying to cross the kitchen without being seen. I couldn't help but laugh.

I do know of several people who have lost their jobs due to repeatedly working from home and looking after their small children at the same time. The view taken by my boss was that you need to be working during core hours (so making the time up later doesn't compensate for not working 9am-5pm) and you can't be working if you're looking after your children at the same time. I think someone in the OP's situation should be allowed some leeway but the people doing it on a regular basis are taking advantage. Rightly or wrongly, it hasn't been tolerated in companies I've worked for.

@MorondelaFrontera

Can I ask why you think a child making a noise is more unprofessional than a dog barking or an interruption from another adult?

MIL supposed to be looking after DD3 whilst I'm upstairs WFH. I'm on a VIDEO CALL with colleagues (not unlike Interview Man) when DD bursts into my bedroom 'Mummeeeee Mummeeee Mummeeeeeeeeeeeee', jumps onto the bed, sticks her face in front of the webcam, 'what's DAT?' very loudly then in fits of giggles at the pictures she's seeing.

Fortunately she is super cute and my colleagues were happy to oblige with a hello and wave (which left her shy, dumb struck but still giggling). It was a good few minutes before my MIL called up her name asking her where she was. She could have (and did!) get up to all sorts in that time!!

People working in pjs, underwear or half naked are the ones who are really unprofessional and the reason why employers are reluctant to let people "work from home".

My boss told me to work from home a few weeks ago so I could sit in my pjs and relax/recover. I'd had a real time of it health wise and she thought working from home in a relaxed environment would refresh me. It did!

if your childcare falls through, you take leave

Well, no id discuss with my manager, because although we are lucky and would get leave at short notice, there are times when I’m needed to do my job (like year end) and she’d rather have me WFH with the possibility of a child in the background than not working.

Can I ask why you think a child making a noise is more unprofessional than a dog barking or an interruption from another adult?

because if you are supposed to work on my teeth, my medical history, or my finances, I'd rather you concentrate on what you are doing and were not distracted by your child which will be your priority!

Again, if you are making 25 sweet cones for my party, I am not that bothered.

When I work with professionals, I expect them to be in professional setting, not in a nursery.

@MorondelaFrontera one of my company used to call wfh days pj days. We had to allocate ourselves x amount of pj days per month.
Good company’s treat you like a human being. I figured this out the hard way!

My husband does on call work and sometimes has to call clients at strange hours to fix problems. My daughter has made many appearances and as a result has had a lot of very sweet presents when they visit the UK!

Good company’s treat you like a human being.

that has nothing to do with anything. If your clients won't appreciate the casualness and take their business elsewhere, you expect professionalism.

It's perfectly possible to work from home without anyone even noticing. I do it all the time. The whole point is that they don't know!

I have spoken with candidates who were interrupted by their kids or in the middle of a racket. If they didn't know I was calling, that's absolutely fine. If it was a time pre-arranged, their application didn't go any further.