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

[BoringSilentHill]

Name changed as work related.

important teams meeting. I’m sat on couch, suddenly my dog jumps up and rams her nose into my eye, my mic is off . I try to push dog away and she thinks I’m playing so starts wrestling with me. Big dog. I notice the talking has stopped and colleagues are half way between amused and horrified.

I manage to sort this one out and everything is back on track until DH suddenly starts belting out Rule Britannia - this time my mic is on and in his defence, he didn’t know I was on teams. It was because we watched the choir.

this is a new job / one week in. How bad is it really or am I overthinking it?

I’d have been thrilled to be on that call, but I’m laid back and work in a down to earth industry.

I think it completely depends upon the people on the meeting and the importance of the meeting. Hopefully they will laugh it off with you tomorrow.

I don’t think so!! Just normal life- these things happen. I think I’d find it funny and not put too much thought into it if I was your colleagues!! If you made it a regular habit, it might be a bit different though!!

Oh dear poor you,your colleagues will be thinking you live with a Nigel Farage enthusiast.😁

What industry ?

I've worked from home since October 2020, so I've seen A LOT on teams meetings (including an ex colleague's topless partner). I wouldn't worry about it too much, but you really need to have somewhere to work that is private to prevent this from happening. Personally, this is something I'd let go this time, but I wouldn't be impressed if it happened repeatedly

Yea that’s my worry but he was only singing it as we’d watched the choir practice earlier

Is Sunday a normal working day for you? If you’ve taken time out of your personal life for a work call - who gaf. Let them think whatever they want to think. If this is a regular working day for you - not very professional

Not fatal but pretty unprofessional. In future for "important" meetings

• sit on a proper chair. Sofa looks lazy imo.
• close the door (to dog, husband etc)
• if you're not home alone or can't guarantee quiet, get headphones.

You will be fine😁👍

First week of a job, not ideal. But I suppose it depends who you were on the call with and what the culture of the business is.

For me - that wouldn't be an issue if I was on with my 'team.' Tbh my dog has come on calls since he was 8 weeks old and loves to say hello to everyone.

If I was on a serious call, especially with our external stakeholders I wouldn't be sat on the couch (I'd be at desk) and the dog would be locked in the kitchen with something to occupy him to eliminate the risk of this happening.

Unless this was an important teams call pitching to some new client, I think it sounds hilarious and would definitely have brightened up my day!

Well everyone will know your name now 🤣, we all do silly things sometimes, the main thing is what you do next. An apology to the members of the meeting, a promise of no more singing from your husband (from now on a sign on the door in red, saying on teams or at work). The dog may be more difficult to train!

Oh, OP, I’m really sorry, that really tickled me for some reason.

I’m sure I said Oh shit really loudly (at least with my camera off) during an all staff meeting at my current workplace. I tell myself that no one would know it was me…?

Well I mean it’s not really a sackable offence but sitting on a sofa with a partner in earshot of the meeting and dogs bounding all over the place doesn’t exactly scream professional and taking your very new job seriously.
I have meetings with various teams and am always sat up at my desk with the door shut so anyone else in the house isn’t overheard.
Not everyone has an office in their house but a table of some sort. And if you don’t have a dining table or kitchen island then at the very least give people in your house the heads up that you’re in a meeting and to be quiet.

My dog has been known to invade Teams meetings - I think it’s fine - as others have said, as long as it isn’t a habit. I agree ref not sitting on the sofa, or at least adjusting your camera so it’s not obvious-blurring your background and also, as others have said, getting headphones and muting when you’re not speaking.
Far worse has happened on Teams meetings, so I wouldn’t beat yourself up about it - at least you were on camera and it was clearly accidental.

Just joke about it and say you're a bit embarrassed how things all kicked off at once, so you'll keep dog and husband out of the room in future.

Take this as a chance to reset. You have not shown your colleagues that you know the difference between work and home, but you can change this.

Sit at a table/desk in a room by yourself with the door closed, and tell your husband to assume you are on Teams at all times.

Why were you doing your work team meeting sitting in your living room, with your husband sitting there too? And apparently with the TV on watching something…

It’s not great, is it? For one week in the job and you’re working in a communal room with a lot of distraction and nonsense going on.

I agree with this. You need to look more professional so you need a proper space to work away from distractions. If you can’t get it at home, you’ll need to think about where to take work calls.

Next time, put yourself in a room, close the door, and make sure your environment is work friendly. You are at work so it's a time to act professional.

It would have been OK at my place.

There are several people who have cat visitors. With one bloke, the cat makes an appearance almost every time. It appears through the door to the left, pops up right in front of the camera and struts back and forth while he fusses it. It's become so regular people don't comment now.

Our cat regularly presents his bum to the world on DHs teams calls. Not great to have DH in earshot if discussing confidential matters but the dog will learn better than our cat!'

As a one off I’d think it was funny. I’d probably think you were having to work from somewhere odd temporarily.

If it kept on happening I’d think you were taking the piss TBH, I hate doing teams calls where someone is clearly not concentrating or something distracting is going on regulalrly. Wastes everyone’s time.

Have you got a plan for a private space which is quiet and someone else to look after the dog? If not I’d go into the office or find a quiet space to work from in a library/ wfh space etc.

Yes it’s definitely not ideal in the first week, you’ll be giving the impression that maybe you shouldn’t be “working from home” because you’re actually spending time playing with your dog and you don’t have a quiet, private space to work from.

And I work in a team when we’d normally show our pets on camera at the start of the team meeting if they’re around.