Half-naked wife? ‘Poop diaper?’ Co-workers get an eyeful as America works from home
Lizet Acampo is now calling herself “PotatoBoss” on Twitter, after a Snapchat filter made her look like a talking potato during a staff meeting this week.
A co-worker tweeted out a photo — of course — adding to the growing social media evidence that Americans are not finding it easy to work from home during the coronavirus outbreak.
“My boss turned herself into a potato on our Microsoft teams meeting and can’t figure out how to turn the setting off,” someone named Rachele tweeted during the meeting. “So she was just stuck like this the entire meeting.”
It’s unclear how many Americans are working from home during the outbreak, but it’s likely growing into the millions as more cities and states issue mandatory stay-at-home orders.
That means attending company meetings via computer — as family life plays out vividly in the background.
“Pro-tip: If you and your husband are both working from home, check to see if he’s on a four-way video call BEFORE running past the office naked to get a towel from the linen closet,” Christina Kerby tweeted on March 12.
“First day of working from home is going great. On a video call meeting with my 2 girl teammates and my brother walks into the room with only his boxers on,” Marissa Notaro said on Twitter on March 16.
“Whole house WFH day 1 report: I whispered “I LOVE YOU” loudly into what turned out to be my spouse’s active meeting headset mic,” Lindsay Crudele tweeted March 12.
North Carolina-based CEO Brooke Markevicius, founder of MOMentum Marketplace, ended up featured in a Wall Street Journal story March 18 after her husband called from the bathroom for toilet paper as she was talking with a potential new partner.
But things got even more earthy when her 2-year-old son “barged into our upstairs office to tell me he had a poop diaper,” she told McClatchy News in an email.
“Luckily, it was a bunch of moms on the call, so they understood. I told him to go find his dad, who was watching the kids while I was on the call. About 5 minutes later he came back, without a diaper on,” she said.
Markevicius says she went into the pandemic with a lot of experience working from home and has advice for other parents trying it for the first time.
“I have worked from our kitchen island, the living room, dining room, an actual home office, and even a closet,” she told McClatchy News.
“It is not going to be perfect and just accept that. Understand there will be a lot of give and take. ... It should not all fall on either parent, or there will be some major arguments and resentment.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 6:09 PM with the headline "Half-naked wife? ‘Poop diaper?’ Co-workers get an eyeful as America works from home."