Friday Fun: Teams@Home

[Blanka Meinhardt]

Hi everybody,

one of the best birthday presents: friday fun topic!

Since being in home-office we have a lot of online meetings (mostly Teams but also zoom, webex, jitsi etc.). I feel meetings have increased in number but not always in quality. But the interesting part of those meetings seems to me: a lot of unexpected things happen - cats crossing the screen, parrots being so loud no one understands the person.

What unexpected (fun, weird) stuff did you come across in these online meetings?

Have a nice day!

Blanka

[Kristin Lyons]

For me, I rarely am in meetings that have video enabled - I think everyone is just understanding that not everyone has a great home office or they're wearing PJs :D But I will say my cat walks on my desk CONSTANTLY.  So when I am on video calls, it's always me that has the cat running across the screen.

[Andy Gladstone]

I am sure that others have had this experience, but early on in the pandemic (April 2020) when I was beginning to spend more and more time on Video Conferences, Zoom was the clear leader. Our organization is a Zoom shop, so whenever we are hosting, it's on Zoom.

Zoom in April 2020 was a less 'secure' service. The traffic that was driven to Zoom as a result of the pandemic forced them to increase their security standards. I experienced the WHY one night when on a community Zoom discussion about how we were handling the pandemic locally when some outsiders infiltrated the Zoom conference (Zoom Bombing) and started blaring music and propaganda full of hate messages. It was not only shocking, but appalling. The person hosting the conference was not technologically savvy enough to know how to shut them out or kick them off, so it went on for some time. In the end we all logged off and someone else opened a new conference line.

The original host actually reported the activity to the hate crimes task force and their Zoom account was taken over by the task force for forensics! It was one night of shock that led to months of investigation. 

[Monique vdB]

Happy birthday @Blanka Meinhardt!!

[Jack Brickey]

Yes I’m sure we have all experienced a funny if not embarrassing moment on one of these calls in our post pandemic work world. Here is one that comes to mind for me.

prerequisite – it would help to appreciate this if you have seen the movie elf and are familiar with the scene with Miles Finch a.k.a. Peter Dinklage in the board room.

let me first set the stage. As a result of an unfortunate accident earlier in the year my ability to sit in my office chair and work for any length of time was compromised in the early days of my recovery.

During one of my IT Video calls my wife had just come home and came into my office to find me working at my desk. To which, trying to be a bit funny, she does a Will Ferrell “oh look at you“ line with her hands on her knees and a big goofy smile. And then suddenly realized that she was on the video call with the rest of my crew. Obviously embarrassed she turns and runs out of the room to which my entire team breaks out laughing. 

I think I have now lost all hope of intimidating my team. 😉

[Daniel Eads]

On a 20-some person meeting, it was a nice day out and I was watching the kids alone. The back porch seemed like a good idea to take the meeting from!

My young daughter switched from playing on the swings to sitting on my lap when she noticed "all the girls" on the call. Needing to go rescue the other child from peril for a moment, I left my seat and she took over. Then when I came back, she wouldn't let me sit back down. Or be in the frame. Every time I tried to see what was happening in the meeting, she turned the laptop and at points would also push the chair around the little circular table. She worked the call for 20 minutes.

@mo was kind enough to take a screenshot so I've got a memento! That'll be a fun story to whip out when I become the "embarrassing" dad.

[Andy Gladstone]

As a father myself, I can tell you that we are all 'embarrassing' dads. Some are cool, some are not, but we are all embarrassing. The more you embrace that reality, the easier it gets!

[Mandy Ross]

I periodically record informational videos for the PM team. In my most recent video, my cat Jack decided to climb up the stand up screen in my office and make a cameo. Timing!

[Marjorie]

For me, I have worked remote for nearly 15 years now.  I have experienced all kinds of events while video chatting.  Actually, I am known for my Doberman barking.  I keep her in the other room, but people hear her still - because she has a big mouth.

My teammate even made my ring tone in her phone a Dog Barking.  LOL

[Fabian Lim]

I was doing a presentation in ms teams and my 5 year old screams "daddy wipe my bum!!!!". 

I had to excuse myself from the meeting for 3 mins...

[Nikki Zavadska [Appfire]]

Speaking of boring meetings our team just looooves to take screenshots of people "thinking" aka being bored and then create slack emojis 😅

[Brant Schroeder]

One of my favorites is when a person was eating carrots at the beginning of a training with their video off but mic on.  They also did not have their volume turned down or off. So for close to 3min we all got to hear healthy eating unil they noticed many messages sent to them in chat.  

[Linda Milne_Togetha Group_]

My issues are not so much funny as a pain in the butt. Our internet connection has reasonable download speeds, but useless upload speeds. So I can hear everyone else fine, but my responses are delayed so we all end up talking over each other.

[Andy Gladstone]

As someone frequently on the other side of team members suffering from similar issues, I feel your pain.

[Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_]

It's usually me getting my arms pawed by my two dogs for fuss as soon as I need to talk (I just look like I'm swaying a lot of the time)... funny when I'm not in a meeting they just lay down and go to sleep 🙄

But me aside, there was one time when someone was presenting on Zoom and a YouTube clip they were watching on stocks and shares started playing in the background, the presenter thought it was another team member talking for a moment before realising. There was then a manic rush to find the tab which took a few moments especially under the pressure or virtual heads staring at you 😅

[Suvradip Paul]

Wow @Blanka Meinhardt ,yes I think we all have experienced these days due working from home thing. Pets and Children are quite common. 

I have seen one of the most used words these days I see in these calls - 'BRB'. But, in some cases struggle to join back.

I have some weird experiences like once some was having some other discussions and forgot to put tis on mute and in one afternoon call, I have heard snoring sounds too. 

[Alexander Pappert]

Mosty, we don't use the video, so no funny moments ;(