You may not share a joke with the person at the next desk, but working from home can provide plenty of amusement. Whether it’s your own ‘fails’ or your pet/child/neighbour having a moment, it isn’t all back to back zoom calls! When we asked our Homeworker community in our facebook group and on Instagram what some of their funny work from home stories were, here is what they said:
Delivery dilemmas
“Answering the door to a delivery, forgetting I’d absentmindedly plaited one half of my hair while watching a webinar, and put the other half in a crazy bun.”
“At Christmas, I literally become the local depot for neighbours’ missed deliveries.”
Zoom not gloom
“Halfway through a zoom call and realising all my laundry is on display behind me. The main issue was it it was all the pants and bras!”
“On a video call, my daughter came in one time. I thought I’d muted myself. I started explaining to her that I was on a really boring call with boring people and I’d be done as soon as possible. Turns out I wasn’t muted after all.”
“Started coughing during a meeting. I couldn’t stop. I had to turn the camera off and mute myself. It was so embarrassing.”
Nosy Neighbours
They can be nosy, they can be noisy, and they can lead to some funny work from home stories:
“I was sat taking a work call in my garden one day when it was sunny. It was quite an important call about some figures and numbers were going down so it was a bit doom and gloom. Seconds after hanging up, my neighbour peeks over the fence and says: “Sounds like you’re going to need a new job soon…”
“The other day I caught a man in the garden taking photos around our house. I was so freaked out and came out my office to see what was happening. It ended up being an Ordnance Survey guy. Husband had given permission but not passed on the message!”
“I woke up one morning to a guy making a fire in our fire pit in the backyard. We called the cops. He was really high and thought he was at a friend’s house, so he made himself at home in our backyard and decided a fire would be nice. Thank God he didn’t burn anything aside from wood!”
Wardrobe Wonders
“Going for a lunchtime walk in summer but being too hot when I got home so just working in my bra for an hour till I cooled down!”
“Sat watching a webinar in a face mask… Luckily nobody turned up to witness it.”
“Collecting a delivery and realising that I’m wearing whatever mis-matched items of clothing that I fancied that morning, that I likely looked like a colourful tramp!”
Kiddy capers
So many funny work from home stories involve children. Here are a few that people had in The Homeworker community:
“I was in a meeting and she needed the toilet. She took herself off to the one just outside my office and then proceeded to check the results and shout out to us that she’d “done a hippopotamus, not a snake”
“I was on an important call to the CEO during lockdown when my daughter, who was a toddler, wandered into the room. She went and hid under the desk at my feet so I let her be while I continued with the meeting. Minutes later I felt my feet becoming warm and damp. I had to ignore it and carry on talking until the meeting was over and I could clean up.”
“Getting photo/video bombed by my son who kept rising up behind me and pulling silly faces. I had to keep presenting with a straight face. I did manage to get him to leave but it was the worst/funniest couple of minutes.”
Cuddly coworkers
Pets are our ever loyal, fluffy companions. Some might say they make better coworkers than their human counterparts.
“My dog is more demanding than most coworkers, always wanting food, to sit on my lap, go for a walk, or just staring at me and making loud snoring noises.”
“Being on an important call and realising your cat has done a 
under your desk.”
“Talking to the pets like they’re coworkers. All the time.”
“Struggling to work because my cat finds my keyboard the comfiest place to sit.”
Tell us – what are some of your funny WFH moments? Do you relate to any of these?
Dedicated to helping you thrive when you work from home, The Homeworker publishes articles that are designed to keep you healthy, happy, and more productive in work and life.