I work in the technology industry, and with customers spread
all over the world, we regularly use WebEx to conduct meetings. One day, while I was working from home, my
manager asked me to have an impromptu one-on-one with her. Now, it should be known that I rarely get
dressed up when I work from home…sometimes I don’t even bathe until after
lunch.
So here I was in pajama bottoms and no shirt, dialing into a
call, when all of a sudden my manager’s face pops up on my screen. She had turned on the video chat
feature. Completely caught off guard, I
saw a little picture of myself in the bottom corner of the screen, bare chested
and hair sticking up in all different directions. I could see her grin of satisfaction, as I
scrambled to act nonchalant, even as I was crossing my arms awkwardly across my
chest to cover up. She kept on talking,
but that evil grin never left her face.
Finally, deciding that she was enjoying this a little too much, I tilted
the screen back so that only my face was in the camera.
It was one of the worst surprises I have ever gotten at
work. I have since disabled the camera
on my computer, and I always put a shirt on before starting work when I’m at
home.
