The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]


When Collaboration Goes Waaaaaay To Far …

In these days of working at home, the possibility of making a video-conference disaster are quite high.

I’ve already had some ‘incidents’ …

For example I was on a concall recently and Rosie – our cat – decided that would be the perfect moment to release the World’s biggest hairball right by the microphone of the laptop.

That went down well.

Then there was the moment Jill and Otis thought it would be fun to fire water pistols against the window I was working from. What they didn’t know was that I – you guessed it – was on a concall again.

The photo at the top of this post captures that moment.

Then there was the second ‘cat’ incident.

I was on a video conference with a client when I noticed them smiling.

“Hey Rob …”, they said, “… your cat seems to have climbed your wardrobe”.

Now given Rosie is so old she won’t even jump on my lap, I looked behind me to see what he was going on about.

“Oh,” I replied, “that’s not my cat, that’s a cuddly toy”.

The client laughed and said, “Wow, it looks very life like” to which I responded …

“I hope so, I paid a fortune to have it made to look exactly like my cat”.

He quickly changed the subject, but he had that unmistakable look in his eye … the look of, WHY HAVE I LET THIS LUNATIC WORK ON MY BRAND?

But for all those incidents, nothing – absolutely NOTHING – compares to this …

Do I feel sorry for ‘Jennifer’?

Sure. But my god, it made me laugh.

I know for a fact if I was on a zoom call and did this in front of my team, not one of them would say a word.

Not because they would be wishing they were blind, nor because they’d be vomiting on sight … but because they’d be busy instagramming the shit out of it.

And I don’t mind telling you, I’d be very proud of them for their evil genius.

Then I’d release all the bad instagram photos I’ve taken of them.


21 Comments so far
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Hilarious. I am sure there have been many zoom incidents over this period. The saving grace is because everyone is going through it, it doesn’t feel fo career limiting. Not that you would ever think that. A fake cat is the least of your inappropriate behaviour.

Comment by George

Also known as the “cough sweet” incident.

Comment by Bazza

Who can forget that!

Comment by George

You get drunk once on a packet of cough sweets and you’re never allowed to live it down. Ha.

Comment by Rob

The shock isn’t about you getting drunk of cough sweets it’s what you did because you were drunk on cough sweets.

Comment by Bazza

And that he got drunk on cough sweets.

Comment by Pete

it was your finest fucking moment campbell. stupid and lame as fuck. but fucking fine.

Comment by andy@cynic

Best bad day ever.

Comment by DH

Rob Campbell. Confusing clients since birth.

Comment by Bazza

Does fake cat (™ George) come with any tech?
You didn’t spend that much money on a simple cuddly you did you?

Comment by Bazza

Yes I did. It was a moment of mature immaturity.

Comment by Rob

dont big yourself up campbell.

Comment by andy@cynic

Excellent mischief by Jill, Otis and your bizarre spending habits.
Now you have an idea Rob, what it is like for us.

Comment by Pete

As much as I would love your colleagues to experience the joy of witnessing you perform a zoom tragedy similar to Jennifer’s, this post is proof they would end up suffering the pain and embarrassment more than you ever would.

Comment by Pete

I’m surprised he hasn’t done it on purpose and then claimed it was to test whether they would speak up or hide. I can hear him saying that.

Comment by Bazza

Ha. I can hear myself saying that too. Kobe once said the sign of leadership was telling a colleague if they had food in their teeth as it was a demonstration you didn’t want them to look foolish to others. This would be my version of that. Ahem.

Comment by Rob

So that’s not going to happen.

Comment by John

you are a fucking twat campbell.

Comment by andy@cynic

Short. Concise. Accurate.

Comment by DH

did you ever fucking doubt it?

Comment by andy@cynic

I would love you to run HR within an organisation Andrew. I don’t mean that sarcastically, I think you would revolutionise everything and everyone.

Comment by George




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