With Zoom and Skype meetings becoming a norm in our daily lives, it is a matter of time we get live streaming bloopers. While if the incident is with family or friends, it can be easily brush off as embarrassment or awkwardness. But when it is in front of your colleagues or clients, it may cost you your job or worst, your reputation.
Here are some of the stories collected all over the world and some contributed by the readers here:
I was in a video interview for a dream job in my dream company with a hiring manager and HR.
Everything was going so well. I was able to answer all of their questions and some of them are pretty tough too. I’m pretty confident that I had this job in the bag until I accidentally shared a random video saved on my laptop. It turns out that random video is porn downloaded by my boyfriend the other night he was here.
Needless to say, I did not get the job. And I dumped my boyfriend too.
- Laura, Presenter
I’m a teacher so during this pandemic period, our school is closed and each teacher is tasked to conduct online lessons to the students at home. I taught the first grade so as usual, the parents will be there at the start of the lesson to set up and the end of the lesson to sign off.
Each lesson is about 2 hours so no parents will stay throughout the entire lesson, maybe they will pop in and out during screen time to check on their kids and make sure they are still using the computer for online lessons and not playing online games or what not. I am very close with my students and their parents. I’m the kind of teacher who get invited to home parties a lot.
One day, as one of my live Zoom session is on going, this student’s father decided to walk in suddenly to his son’s bedroom to probably to surprise/ check on him. What he forgot / didn’t realised was that he is naked bottom half! OMG, I have about 10 students on the lesson. I’m not sure if anyone saw him or paid any attention to him. I know no other parents was in the same session. I quickly end the Zoom session.
Later, I apologised to all the parents that I had a glitch on my laptop that led to early end to the lesson and did a make up lesson the next day. I did report this to my headmaster but I believe the kids are none wiser and I believe that the father did not flash himself on purpose.
- Susie, Teacher
I wasn’t feeling well that day and was nauseous the entire morning. I planned to go to the doctor that evening if I was still feeling woozy but first, I need to sit through an important video meeting.
Although my presence is required, I wasn’t needed to express any opinion so I figured out I can lay low, nod along to the right parts and smile a lot during the one hour meeting. I must have been swaying at one point because I heard my name being called out repeatedly.
When I tried to respond, no words came out and the next thing I knew, I vomited all over my keyboard while staring deadeye at the camera.
Bad news: I had to send my company’s laptop for servicing and cleaning at my own cost.
Good news: I’m pregnant!
- Ashtani, Shipping Assistant
As a freelancer, it is rather uncommon that I get video meeting request from clients. Usually, clients will just purchase my gig and add in any special request. However, this was a rather big client in my country and they have a few websites that they want me to design. If I get their deal, it means I don’t have to work on anything else but theirs for the next half of the year. This means a steady income until Christmas.
During the meeting, this client also surprised me with a bonus clause if I’m able to satisfy their requirements. If I get the bonus, I can even take a break during Christmas stretching New Year. Awesome news for a bad 2020!
As the client is only able to see my top half, I wore a nice shirt but my bottom was a pair of Spongebob boxer. After the video meeting end, I jumped up from my seat and did the chicken dance. Until I heard someone clearing their throat did I realised that I forgot to sign off from my video meeting and that I did the chicken dance in front of the board members.
- Samuel, Website Designer
I hate video meetings. I never know where to look. Without a choice, I had to work from home during the lockdown so a lot of my meetings are video ones. One time, I thought the participants hadn’t arrived yet and I was on my Word doc, forgetting that my cam was on. I was digging my nose until someone cleared his throat. I almost died from embarrassment. Ahhhh….
- Wendy, Guest Activities Coordinator
Our study area is set up in the common area of our house so we always tried to schedule video conference when the kids are at school. Last week, our youngest daughter was sick suddenly so I had to pick her up from school. When we reached home, my husband was in the middle of a video conference.
In order not to be caught in the camera, my daughter and I crawled across the floor to get to her bedroom. What we didn’t know at that time was that the camera was angled in a way that the floor was visible. So yes, the entire board directors saw us wiggling across the hall.
- Jasmine, Copywriter
I freelance as a writer so I often have late night video discussion with my clients, mostly whom are halfway across the world. It suits me because in the night, I don’t have distractions from my 3 years old twins.
In the middle of one video discussion, I had to ask my client to wait for awhile as I had to fetch a document from another room. I came back after 10 mins to find one of my twins out of bed and happily chatting with my client in his babyish language. Fortunately, my client was a father as well so he can empathise and laugh at the situation.
- Joshua, Freelance Writer
This happened five or six years ago when I was in college. I was taking some of the toughest courses during university and having trouble with one of my assignments. My lecturer volunteered to coach me through it through a series of video calls.
My girlfriend walked in during one of those video calls unaware. She started stripping herself down to her undies and I didn’t even noticed it. My lecturer (a nice older gentleman) had suddenly turned off his camera in the middle of our intense conversation and told me through audio that I have a “naked intruder” in my room.
- Harold, Creative Technologist
I overslept on the day I had an early Zoom conference. I quickly jumped out of my bed, grabbed whatever shirt I hanged on my bedroom door and proceed to set up my laptop for the video call. I totally forgot that the shirt belongs to my little brother.
Let’s just say that the shirt ends at mid of my torso and has a very nasty word in bold red splash across my chest. I had to smile and pretend that was my choice of wardrobe during the entire 2 hours meeting.
The worst thing is I can’t even excuse myself to grab a jacket or a cardigan because it means standing up and I wasn’t wearing any bottoms!
- Allison, Event Sales Manager
During an important presentation with my newest client, my cats decided to fight with each other on who gets to sit on my keyboard. I had to shoo them off which inadvertently showed me wearing a lacy panty because I had to stand up to carry both of them off my table.
And when I turned my back and bend over to let my cats down. I thought I heard a chuckle behind me. It was my client trying to stifle his laughter.
- Meghan, Recruiter
I hope you had a good laugh and cheer you up this midweek. We will get through to Friday, just another 2 days more! Do you have an embarrassing Zoom encounter too? Share it with us in the comments below.
Need further cheering up? Here are some of the interesting articles:
Worst Interview Stories by Recruiters & Managers
Memorable Stories From Grab / Uber Drivers
Tweets from Working at Home Parents who are going Crazy
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LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/kallytay
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MiddleMe 
Awesome post, Kally. Probably the most common thing I see is everyone pushing their cats out of the way (me included), generally on the same video call, or if a cat(s) are making a racket, the meeting stops until the offending party identifies whose cat it is. I had one colleague a few months ago excuse himself for a minute while he pulled down the blind to his outside study window as his children were making faces through the glass. We all had a bit of a laugh about that one.
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Haha! Thank you for sharing your funny stories with us, Sean. Your comment really made my day!
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so many of these wild stories from licking plates, to being naked to…. ok, we won’t go there. My cats and dog’s are just part of the scene. Hope you’re well Kally! ❤️ Cindy
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I’m glad you enjoy this post, Cindy! I’m doing much better and catching up with laundry and chores!
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Thanks and so glad you are getting back into a routine and feeling better! ❤️ Cindy
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Fun Kally…yoga and humans with their dogs/cats 😂😳🤭
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I’m glad I made you laugh today! 🙂
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Oh my, this was insanely cool😂😂😂 Probably the most interesting one I’ve read recently. I couldnt help cringing through half of them!! Especially the random porn and the wriggling on the floor! And flashing…🤭😂😂🙆♀️ YIKES!
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Haha! I know, right? The thing is I know all of them and have them to tell it to my face, I can’t stop tears from flowing!
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😂 awesome!
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Thank you!
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☺️
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Awesome post 👍
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Thank you!
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Ah dear ❤️❤️❤️ these posts made me laugh 😂😂😂 throughout…but on the other hand it surely casts an awareness on all of us engaged in video meetings,
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I’m glad that this made you laugh! 😆
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I too had faced 😂😂 similar experiences
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Hilarious post Kally. 😂😂😂😂
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I’m glad that this made you laugh! 😆 Welcome to MiddleME!
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These are true funnies! Thank you for sharing, Kally! You made my day, and we need some automatic reminder on screen preventing some of these moments. Spongebob boxers. Lol Have a nice day! Michael
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I’m glad that this made you laugh! 😆 Thank you for visiting, Michael.
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Always with a great pleasure, and many thanks for your efforts on posting wonderful information, Kally!
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These stories are so funny but I’d hate if any of those experiences happened to me. The one about the person’s 3-year-old talking to her client while she went to get something is especially amusing.
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I’m glad that this made you laugh! 😆 That child incident almost happened to me today! I thought my daughter was taking a nap while I went to grab a sandwich for 5 mins. Lucky I wasn’t due for a video meeting. I found her watching YouTube on my laptop.
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Ha, well you now know what to watch out for next time you have a video meeting.
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Absolutely!!!!
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Ohhh my !!!😂😂😂😂 I laughed so hard 😂😂
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I’m glad that this made you laugh! 😆 Welcome to MiddleMe!
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These are brilliant and certainly made me smile 🙂
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I’m glad that this made you smile! 😆
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These are awesome. Thank you for sharing them. In the words of Oceans Eleven, “Someone is always watching.”
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I’m glad that this made you laugh! 😆 Such an apt quote!
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Haha. I had a good laugh and it was a fun read. 😂
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I’m glad that I made you laugh today, Herry.
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These made for a good laugh at the end of a bad day. Loved the post, Kally!!
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Thank you, Sarah and welcome to MiddleMe! Glad I made you laugh and drove your dark clouds away!
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This had me in tears!!! I have a few incidents too but none as hilarious as these. Thanks for the fun post Kally
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Thank you, Shelly and welcome to MiddleMe! So happy that the stories made you laugh. I hope they are happy tears.
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Yes, happy but ugly I can’t stop laughing kind of tears 😂
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Awesome Kally,
Just goes to show “That LIFE is Great” (until we screw it up) ; but some of us may still, be waiting for our turn to do so.
Dear Lord, Please Be with us,
Patrick
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Thank you, Patrick! So happy that you love the stories. Stay blessed and safe.
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Awesome collection, Kally! Is it possible to cringe and to laugh simultaneously? It is, and your article helped me to prove it!
The teacher describing a half-naked father wandering onto shot is mind-boggling. Maybe I just had an abnormally-sheltered childhood, but it does seem a bit…odd for parents to drop in on their children dressed (or, rather, undressed) like that. Sure, there’s such a thing as being comfortable in your body, but come on! We’re trying to have a civilization here.
Then, on quite the opposite end of the heartwarming scale is story of a soon-to-be mother’s morning sickness announcing her pregnancy, both to herself and to all her colleagues. In an instant, the tale goes from being mortifying, to being life-affirming. Literally.
Plus, now she has a story to tell, about seventeen years from now, when the child brings home a date to meet the parents. “Mom! OMG! Why would you tell this story now?”
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According to my teacher friend, the kid confided that his father often drink at home during midday so it might be the case of him being drunk and not being aware he wasn’t dressed properly!
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That is some stuffs that pandemic gave us a memory! All those embarrassing moments felt more than a blooper for me. 😂 lol
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I’m glad that you enjoyed the post. Welcome to MiddleMe!
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This is such a nice read. I laughed, got stunned at some point but above all, I felt charmed by the accounts. Always nice reading your posts.
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Thank you so much, Nicholas! Welcome to MiddleMe.
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Thank you .you made my day
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You’re most welcome!
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😁🤣🤣🤣😂
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I’m happy I made you laugh!
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Ahhh..dear..😂😂 they are really so funny as well as self awaring at the same time 👍👍👍
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I’m glad I made you laugh!
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😇😇
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😂 These are hilarious, though I do feel for those having to live down an undie sighting or other exposure. 😂 So far, my biggest problem has been off camera with my cats scrambling around and distracting me.
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Same here. My biggest problem so far are my cats sitting on my keyboard. Lol 😂
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Thank you!!!!❤(wondering why I said that???) Cuz you made me laugh so hard that I ultimately cried😂😭.
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You’re most welcome. I’m happy you enjoyed it.
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Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
OH DEAR—HAVE YOU BEEN HERE?????
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Thank you Jonathan for sharing this out!
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U. R. WELCOME
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Love these stories. They definitely gave me the chuckle I needed this morning.
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I’m glad I made you laugh, Geri. Have an awesome weekend.
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Thank you for brightening my morning with some chuckles! I can relate!!
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I’m happy to made you laugh, Anne!
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Reblogged this on Ed;s Site..
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Thank you for sharing this out!
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Reblogged this on worldtraveller70.
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okay. you have the ‘other side’ articulated well :)’
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Thank you!
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*Your blog is decor flawless, you as a blogger are-rare priceless, and your content is perfectionon your blog*
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Thank you so much.
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Kally, hilarious stories! Each and every one a gem! ❤ Have a great week!
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I’m glad you enjoy this. Stay safe and smiling!
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Such a lovely post! I have encountered people listening to music or flushing toilets during online classes!😀
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Really? Wow! That must be hard not to laugh at the flushing toilets.
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I think everyone in the meeting had a good laugh! Fortunately they didn’t
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Fortunately they were extra cautious to keep their microphones turned off. 😂
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That’s very nice of them, really.
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Yes!😁
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Oops!
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😄
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