Hey, is the mic on?

[easysurfer]

Saw that a certain news anchor got caught having a potty mouth not knowing the audio and video was still on. For me, that's no big deal and more humorous than offensive. I think because the cuss wasn't directed at anyone but at a situation.

Anyhow, made me think, have you ever been caught or at a similar situation? Remember when w*rking, my group was at a video conference. No potty words were tossed out but over half the time folks were saying "Hey, is this thing on? We can't be on, can we?" then making some smart remarks. Pretty embarrassing in the end .

 

[Meadbh]

I had an amusing experience several years ago in Budapest. I took the (audio-enabled) Communist Era tour, which included a visit to the House of Terror. At the end of our visit, we had a bathroom break. As I did my business, I realized that our guide had forgotten to turn off his microphone. Tinkle, tinkle, little star!

I call it the Bathroom of Terror.

 

[Texas Proud]

Happened to me....

This was after a merger and the winners had not been determined yet... my boss and one from the other side (who seemed to be the choice to go forward) was arguing some point... someone 2 cubes over worked for me and was on the call... she yelled over to me to get in and stop it....

I did not know my mic was on and said 'she is digging her own hole, I will let her keep digging'.... well, EVERYBODY heard it and the top guy asked me what I said.... I had to quickly say that I was talking to someone that had just came into my cube and I did not know the mic was on... hoping they would think I was talking about something else...

Nobody ever mentioned it to me.... not sure how many actually caught it over the other two arguing...

 

[harley]

I've seen/heard a few situations like that. I learned early to make sure my phone was mute, and to test it by asking if anybody could hear me. It was critical to do so, because we'd often sit around on the conference call doing a MS3K-like commentary on our management.

Another similarly embarrassing (or worse) situation was back in the 90s, the relatively early days of email. We had a high middle management type that sent his overly descriptive love/lust emails to his corporate mistress to a general mailing address. It went to hundreds of people. He did it three times before somebody got to him and stopped him. Even in those much more permissive days it was too much, and he was out the door.

 

[travelover]

At MegaMotors, we had a high level management drive whenever we launched a new model. To keep all the vehicles together and coordinated each had a two way radio temporarily installed. The radios had a "talk" button on the side of the microphone and in one vehicle, someone had jammed the microphone into a position where the talk button was always depressed. So, for 50 or so miles we listened to some executive ramble on and on to a subordinate about all his accomplishments and how great he was. Luckily for him, that was the extent of his embarrassment.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

There is a clip out there of a news reporter that is in Arkansas doing a story on a death. During the shoot, a bug flies into his mouth and he loses it. It's a fantastic clip and is worthy of your 30 seconds....but be warned, the language is pretty strong.

I won't link it here, but it's easy to find on YouTube.

 

[Sunset]

......
Another similarly embarrassing (or worse) situation was back in the 90s, the relatively early days of email. We had a high middle management type that sent his overly descriptive love/lust emails to his corporate mistress to a general mailing address. It went to hundreds of people. He did it three times before somebody got to him and stopped him. Even in those much more permissive days it was too much, and he was out the door.

I was working at a big company , and someone sent porn pictures to his friends. Unfortunately for him, his friend had the same name as me.
I sent him an email warning him that other people would not view this as acceptable.

 

[RunningBum]

I was following a speaker who was giving a talk that was going to be contentious, with many of our competition in the audience, and a required Q&A session. I'm sure she was dreading it. I thought it probably wasn't as bad as she thought it'd be, but it still had it's moments. We had 2 sets of wireless clip on mics, and I was just about set to start and she's heading out the side door, everyone hears "I am OUTTA here!" Everybody laughed. I was too thrown by it to have a good follow up.

 

[Meadbh]

When I was doing my MBA we had a visiting prof come for a short course. A couple of months later, my classmates and I began receiving a vituperative email exchange between the prof and his soon-to-be-ex-wife. I don’t know how our mailing list got there, but the CC list was very long. Revenge?

Another story: I went to the doctors’ lounge at the hospital one day and decided to check my email. The computer was on and displayed confidential patient information from a private plastic surgery clinic. It was obvious to me which physician was responsible. I immediately closed the programs and reported the privacy breach to the CMO. Never heard what happened.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I was in a large meeting held in a hotel ballroom with a high-end sound system. They conferenced in several people and put the sound on the overhead speakers, and of course there's always one who is too clueless to mute their phone while sitting in for several hours. He must have been holding his mouthpiece up against his face because all we heard for those hours was Darth Vader. I never did figure out why the leader didn't politely ask him to mute, but I was about to lose it trying not to laugh out loud.

 

[HadEnuff]

I have had several friends in the TV announcing business (news desks, sports commentating) and they all told me that in school the lesson is constantly being drilled into them that "the mic is always hot! The mic is always hot!"...

There was, and probably still is, a video on YouTube of ESPN's Chris Berman losing his temper with someone behind the cameras. Definitely not his "I'm your drinking buddy watching the game with you" persona he liked to cultivate.

 

[Red Badger]

During a stint as a production scheduler (for a small off road vehicle MFG), our supply chain was seriously impeded by the earthquake that struck Kobe, Japan in the mid-90's. We were flying in ocean containers of transaxles in an effort to recover production numbers during our peak season (that would make or break our year).

Anyway, I had a time sensitive update that needed to go to all department managers, HR, and senior execs (if we wanted to work OT on Sat/Sun, it was a legal requirement that the notice go out by COB Thursday).

The gist of my memo was that the transaxles would arrive US in time to support weekend work, but if the transaxles got hung up in customs, or had an airport delay, etc, there would be sizable cost incurred - and zero production. As ops folks would understand, it was a lengthy and detailed memo to preclude a fifty questions response from ~30 mid to senior level folks.

Money shot - MS Word flagged transaxle, so, in a stressful, crisis management moment, I hit the change all option and the send button. My company wide memo about containers of inbound transsexuals was well received. I got to hear about it at many company meetings/functions for years to come.

PC comment - this was over 20 years ago - Mindset on gender culture was way different.

 

[pb4uski]

Since I telecommuted for much of the last 13 years that I worked, I spent a lot of time on conference calls... typically on a cordless phone as I paced around the house or outside on the deck on nice days. On some of those long conference calls nature called me, and I was very careful to use the mute button wisely.. I never got caught in an embarassing situation.

However, on one hot day things were slow and I decided to take a swim in our pool. I brought the cordless phone up and put it on the side of the pool and was relaxing on a lounge float when the phone rang within easy reach. I answered it and it was a peer from work with a question. I answered her question and we were making small talk and she said "It sounds like you are in a tunnel or something" at which point I reluctantly admitted that I was laying on my back in our pool.. we had a laugh about it and after that she referred to me as the "pool guy".

 

[Meadbh]

Speaking of newsreaders....

https://youtu.be/EIr82nactaI

 

[Texas Proud]

I was in a large meeting held in a hotel ballroom with a high-end sound system. They conferenced in several people and put the sound on the overhead speakers, and of course there's always one who is too clueless to mute their phone while sitting in for several hours. He must have been holding his mouthpiece up against his face because all we heard for those hours was Darth Vader. I never did figure out why the leader didn't politely ask him to mute, but I was about to lose it trying not to laugh out loud.

The other like this is the one who is clicking away on their keyboard which is right next to their phone.... I have asked people to either mute or stop typing when I was in charge...

 

[DrRoy]

Once I was in the car on a conference call, and I forgot to mute as I ordered lunch at a drive through.

 

[JoeWras]

I honestly cannot recall being on either side of this at my work, except for trivial stuff. Some of my co-w*rkers claim they were on a conference call where for 1/2 hour, one of the attendees was playing porn in the background.

Back to the OP, maybe referring to Sue Simmons. What surprises me about that is how cavalier the language may be near a hot mic. We rarely swear at work, and we don't have an audience of 12 million.

Speaking of NY news. The most famous hot mic was one where both participants knew it was hot, and both didn't care. There are a few threads active right now about being close to ER, and the challenges of holding back and not "losing it." Well, Jim Ryan and Dick Oliver lost it, live, on TV, and neither much cared. Talk about airing the worst of office politics. Just google those names, or read this excerpt:

O: Right....So what you do want now?

J: Well, if I have to teach you to be a reporter Ollie, I'll do that later.

O: Why doncha do that later Jim, but I think the lady expressed herself and you're not here, you're there, is there any question you'd like me to ask her?

J: No, I'll give you lessons on how to become a reporter later...

O: I'll give you some lessons on how to be an editor because I WAS your boss once.

J: Yeah, you were...and are no longer. How'd that happen?

O: Well, I don't know...

 

[misshathaway]

Once work was having an IT emergency and I was part of the group assigned to handle it. I was working at home, which required a 24/7 continuous group call on speaker phone. As things happened people would just start talking into the already open line. This was my first experience with such a call. I flushed the toilet with an audience.

 

[JoeWras]

Oh, and then there is the infamous event where A.J. Clemente, in his very first live on-air footage, said two of the top 3 "bad" words live. They were the first words out of his mouth. Poor guy, he was fired, and his career was done, 1 second after it started.

 

[JoeWras]

Once work was having an IT emergency and I was part of the group assigned to handle it. I was working at home, which required a 24/7 continuous group call on speaker phone. As things happened people would just start talking into the already open line. This was my first experience with such a call. I flushed the toilet with an audience.

Oh! I had one of those calls, actually a few weeks worth, last fall. Everyone was very careful!

We did get to hear one of our co-w*rker's kids practicing music lessons. Really brilliant, actually, and pleasant to hear in the background. If I were him, I'd let my kid accidentally show off a bit too.

 

[Meadbh]

Just last week I was on a teleconference board meeting where the chair (who arrived late) had some kind of family argument going on in the background. Very unprofessional.

 

[Gumby]

When I was at the big NYC law firm, a colleague once called me and said "I have a client with a problem involving the XYZ Chapter 11, would you be able to talk to him?" I asked "So what's his major malfunction?" After a pregnant pause, my colleague replied "Well, he's on the line, so he can tell you himself." Oops.

Actually, it worked out fine. I got along splendidly with the client and was able to help him, but I was more cautious on the phone after that.

 

[Ronstar]

Our receptionist called me on the intercom and said Mrs so and so wants to talk to you. I was close to the front desk, so I walked by the receptionist and said “tell her I’m out and I’ll call her back.” Receptionist said “tell her yourself- she’s sitting right here”.

 

[MRG]

Once work was having an IT emergency and I was part of the group assigned to handle it. I was working at home, which required a 24/7 continuous group call on speaker phone. As things happened people would just start talking into the already open line. This was my first experience with such a call. I flushed the toilet with an audience.

A buddy of mine decided the men's room was where he wanted to have a call with his banker regarding his new million dollar home. I thought it was a good place to teach to why you don't conduct business in the men's room. There was a lot of noise! There were noises that I didn't know could be made.

 

[pb4uski]

Our receptionist called me on the intercom and said Mrs so and so wants to talk to you. I was close to the front desk, so I walked by the receptionist and said “tell her I’m out and I’ll call her back.” Receptionist said “tell her yourself- she’s sitting right here”.