The Most Unhinged Remote Work Behaviors

Remote work blurred the line between “flexible” and “feral.” Somewhere between WFH and WTF, professionalism slipped—sometimes literally—into the pool.

Remote meeting culture is in chaos (see: the memes, hot mics and floating heads). In bed one minute, on Zoom the next. Posed at a desk with no pants. The accidental on-air slip or cat hijacking the camera. The aggressively casual background—or worse, your chaotic garage. 

But the reality is, it’s just simply not working (pun intended). Read: Work meetings, but make them feral—less Zoom, more Wild West. And it begs the question—why should we compose ourselves any differently in our home office than on-site? 

And before you write this off as generational gibberish, the offenders are primarily not Gen Z. As it happens, some of the most egregious perpetrators—the ones that leave us wishing they’d just turned their cameras off—are senior-level leaders. 

Whether this is a no-rules pandemic hangover, the collapse of workplace boundaries or a broader erosion of professional norms, one thing is crystal clear: Virtual meetings have gotten sloppy. It’s no small coincidence that companies are starting to ban treadmill meetings, mandating cameras on and tightening virtual conduct rules in an effort to rein in a culture that’s drifted further from “flexible” into free-for-all. And after cataloging a steady stream of truly unhinged behavior, it’s safe to say we’re overdue for an intervention. 

Pool Float Executive
“An executive joined a companywide Zoom—over 100 employees, management present—from a pool raft, Champagne glass in hand, phone carefully angled to show only her face. Twenty minutes in, she lost her balance. The phone fell into the water. When she resurfaced on screen, she was very clearly in a bikini, very clearly in the pool, and very clearly no longer muted. HR followed up.”

Memoji Workaround
“We have a coworker who hates being on camera so deeply that she created a memoji in Teams to blink, nod and mouth responses for her instead. The uncanny valley has entered the chat.” 

Hit-and-Run Hang-Up
“During a routine call, a coworker was running errands and we heard a loud crash.  Without missing a beat, she said, ‘Gotta run—just got into a car accident,’ and hung up.” 

Vibration Plate Reveal
“The director of sales is famously off-camera, always muted and perpetually calling in from… somewhere else: the beach, a Starbucks drive-thru, daily walks. During one meeting, she was asked a direct question and responded in a shaky voice. When someone asked if she was OK, she replied she was on her vibration plate.”

Walking Pad Evangelist
“We have this one girl who insists she can’t reach her daily step goal without pacing her walking pad during work hours—so we just see her bobbing up and down during meetings.”

WFH Gone Wild
“We once watched—live—a bear walk into someone’s kitchen.”

Feline Full Moon
“Our colleagues with cats usually greet us with a full-moon view of cat ass. If the hindquarters aren’t directly on camera, the little exhibitionists are pacing the desk, tail flicking around their humans’ heads like a rear-first hostile takeover.”