Whoops forgot something
Another day another dude doing a Zoom meeting for work without bothering to put pants on.
Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of the books “Lincoln’s Melancholy” and “Powers of Two,” has resigned from his positions as editor in chief of the Believer magazine and artistic and executive director of the Black Mountain Institute.
Because of the no pants.
In a farewell letter shared with the staff, Shenk said his resignation followed “a dumb, reckless choice to disregard appropriate setting and attire for a Zoom meeting. I crossed a line that I can’t walk back over. I sorely regret the harm to you — and, by extension, to the people we serve. I’m sorry.”
The incident occurred during a video meeting in early February withabout a dozen staff members of the Believer and BMI, according to three sources who were in the meeting.
According to Ira Silverberg, a literary agent and editor who is acting as Shenk’s advisor, Shenk was soaking in a bathtub with Epsom salts during the meeting to alleviate nerve pain caused by fibromyalgia.
He had chosen a virtual background to mask his location and had worn a mesh shirt. When Shenk’s computer battery died, he got up to plug it in, believing the camera was off. But the video kept running. According to Silverberg, Shenk reported the incident immediately.
Entirely credible. Why would he not choose the time slot when he was attending a video meeting to soak in a tub with no pants on? Surely that’s the perfect time to take your pants off and get comfortable in the tub.
Credit to Siva for my awareness of this fun adventure.
It’ll be interesting to see, a year or two from now, to what extent companies will allow remote working and videoconferencing. Stuff like this will no doubt have a lot of HR departments discouraging it.
Jeffrey Toobin was not helpful in this regard.
I don’t know if it’s computer illiteracy or what, but there seems to be a disconnect between the mental models that people have of computers and how computers actually work.
I work from home, and I have a work computer that I use for video conferences. I have a simple way of knowing whether the camera on. If there is a yellow sticky note covering the camera lens, the camera is off. Otherwise, it is on.
Yeah, sure, but it was fine for Jean Paul Marat?
And look what happened to him :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Marat
How difficult is it to separate personal time from work or public time? Trying to multitask just because you’re in your own environment? Please. People’s lack of personal responsibility nowadays is literally spectacular.
All this online shit is causing a certain amount of disconnect from reality… This is me in my real life and the rest of y’all are just images on a screen sort of thing.
Next you’ll tell me you’re not really a blood knight at all.
God, and here I am worried that the room behind me will look a touch messy when I participate in a video call. Not once has the notion of TAKING A BATH crossed my mind, even if it’s possible to hide the background and even if one could turn the camera completely off. It’s this kind of crap that makes life difficult for those of us who make a habit of working from home and have done so for nearly two decades, because there is always some freaking numpty like this who sees the lack of continuous managerial oversight as a chance to indulge themselves.
Hey gang it’s Rubber Ducky time!
For the past year, working from home, I have made it a habit to dress the way I dress when I go in to the school. Thanks to that, when I return on Monday, I am not in for a sudden shock when I have to get up and get dressed.
I’ve seen Zoom meeting invites that jokingly refer to “No Pants”, but if people take that too literally maybe they’ll have to drop that wording.