Mortifying incident at work today - help!

[LeevMarie]

OK, I'll have to be a little careful here in case it's outing. . .

Large Teams call today with whole department. At the end of the call, everyone starts saying bye and I'm sitting in the living room with my husband when I make a remark to him about the person leading the meeting (who just happens to be a senior leader . . .). What I said wasn't very polite, but not necessarily unpleasant. I said something along the lines of, 'politicians answers' and laughed a little.

Immediately I realise that I'm not on mute. I'm horrified.

DH thinks I can legitimately claim that this was not directed at the person speaking, but I think I need to own up.

WWYD:
YABU - Ignore and hope nobody has heard
YANBU - Own the faux pas, speak to the person I directed the comment at.

Please feel free to tell me your Teams indiscretions to make me feel better if you like!

Surely you have to own up or admit you were talking to your husband who was in your work meeting effectively? Unless you work in the same place? (the same company I mean, not just both WFH?) or the other option is to say you were talking to yourself? Can you not just ignore the fact you said it?

Surely just leave it and hope it got crowded out by all the other goodbyes

Dont mention it unless they do and if they do mention it then claim ignore and say you were talking back to your radio that was on in the background.

Claim ignorance

We both wfh, not for the same company. Sorry, should've explained that.

I'm so horrified and struggling to gather my thoughts!

Speak to a trusted colleague to see if anyone hear you

if not just wait it out… if someone ask have rehearsed
’oh I don’t know what you mean.. oh wait I was talking to dh about x,y,z how embarrassing I wasn’t on mute..,

Did anyone say anything?
Do you think they know it was you who made the comment?
Do you have any close colleagues you can speak with.

Tbh I'd be inclined to not say anything , you didn't say anything particularly rude or personal.

If anyone asks look surprised and say that you were answering something DH had said that was completely unrelated to work 😉

You were muttering about Matt Hanock in the Jungle being mentioned on the radio in the background?

Nobody said anything, but there's a recording and it's quite audible. Teams does this irritating think where your profile pic illuminates when you speak, so obvious it was me. 😨

Your comment was not really rude and I’m sure if anyone noticed you’d have already heard about it.
claim ignorance.

Good one! I'm saving this. 😂

This is totally what you should do.

I wouldn't say anything, but the fact that your husband can listen to your work meetings might land you in trouble

Style it out. If anybody raises it say, Oh, I couldn't get a straight answer out of my husband.

Feign ignorance but fall back onto Matt Hancock (not literally unless you like cheating bastards who are responsible for massive death tolls) .

I’d be more concerned about your husband listening to a work call tbh, that’s really unprofessional. The comment you can probably brush over.

Don't say anything unless it is mentioned. Chances are everyone was focused on leaving and didn't notice. Don't forget, no one else focuses on you the way you do. And if anyone heard, they probably didn't make the link to the person you were referring to.

Think of a plausible answer just in case but don't say it too much off pat as that might give you away. Seem somewhat bemused.

Yeah, why is your husband hanging about when you're on work calls?

Definitely this

I had a corker of a Zoom faux pas during lockdown. I'd forgotten that one of our corporate accounts, for some reason, joined you microphone on but camera off. Our big old Maine Coon was trundling around on my desk, trying to find somewhere annoying to sleep. So my first words in the meeting were "would you ever sit down, you hairy twat!"

Luckily it was with a team I knew well, who weren't going to clutch their pearls.

Sorry, not very helpful to your immediate situation, but hopefully it's given you a smile.

😂😂 @moggerhanger

I'd do nothing and say nothing. Is the recording likely to be watched?