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The Worst Zoom Accidents and Faux Pas of the Pandemic
With cameras on us now more than ever there was bound to be some incidents
The Covid-19 pandemic quickly injected new and unexpected norms into our lives. Once of the most prevalent has been Zoom, the video teleconference and online chat service that has been taken advantage of by so many given its convenience to conduct business and personal interactions from afar. With the increased use of and reliance on this technology, it was inevitable that there would be some unfortunate incidents.
The School Board Member’s Bathroom Break: Frances Cogelja, a Woodland Park, New Jersey school board member, had been under fire during their tenure for their controversial views on a school LGBT curriculum and for initially refusing to approve an anti-racism board resolution as a show of community support.
The administrator’s controversial tenure recently came to an abrupt end following her resignation. The reason for her departure was that she accidentally broadcast a bathroom break she took during a board meeting that was being conducted on Zoom. As it turns out, one might be able to survive unpopular opinions and actions, but it’s hard to overcome going to the bathroom on video in front of your colleagues.
Doesn’t That Beat All: Jeffrey Toobin, long-time writer for The New Yorker, was suspended and ultimately fired after allegedly being seen masturbating during a work Zoom call. The incident supposedly occurred when the scribe, believing he was off camera, was visibly seen by colleagues in the act of self-pleasuring. After the publication conducted a thorough investigation, they cut ties with him, prompting him to tweet, “I was fired today by @NewYorker after 27 years as a Staff Writer. I will always love the magazine, will miss my colleagues, and will look forward to reading their work.”
Hot Potato!: Zoom is so much more than just a tele-video conference tool. There are ways to play with how you are seen, including backgrounds and face spoofing. Rachele Clegg on Twitter posted a hilarious video that showed how her boss had set her Zoom up to display her face as a “talking potato,” but then was couldn’t figure out how to revert back to regular video once the joke was over. Instead, she had to…
