This happened in 2020. Online classes were the thing, and my little sister was in a 9 AM class on Zoom. She’d been complaining since waking up about how tired she was and didn’t want to attend. After attendance, she kept her camera off and mic muted.

She hadn’t read the book they were discussing, so when her teacher (who was already in his 50s and often struggled just to share his screen) called on her, she said, “Sorry, sir, my connection’s cutting out…”

Then she started tapping her mic on and off to make it sound glitchy lol Classic.

A few minutes later, I walk past her to the dining table where she had set up and hear the Stranger Things intro theme. Ah. So, that’s why.

I roll my eyes and go, “You’re unbelievable.” She just laughs, and right before I can say anything else, I hear her teacher calling her name again through the laptop.

She PANICS, unmutes herself to answer (probably something about bad connection again), but I shout, “TELL YOUR TEACHER OUR CONNECTION IS FINE! YOU’RE JUST WATCHING NETFLIX AGAIN!”

I hear her classmates laughing, and some who had their cameras open were obviously amused.

I really thought her teacher would be mad, but he just says, “So that’s why half of ya’ll don’t read the books.”

This was over a year ago. Was having a Zoom meeting with the team and everyone had their cameras off except our manager, who insisted on “seeing faces,” but looked like he hated being there too.

About twenty minutes in, he started another one of his “team morale” speeches. Atp I was over it. This job requires SO MUCH of their employees, and the salary did not match what they’re expecting. I was just waiting for two more months so I could hit the one-year mark before I submit my resignation letter. I was that tired. We all were.

Except our manager, apparently, who earns 3x more than anyone in the team but is only around on Mondays lol

So I was half-listening, half-scrolling through memes, when he started talking about “positive work attitudes” yet again. That’s when I said to myself, “Yeah, maybe start with giving us an actual raise. We asked for it like a hundred times already. Come on.” I even rolled my eyes.

He stopped talking then. And when I looked at my pc screen to check if something had opened on my end, I realized…

I wasn’t muted. I’ve had my mic on since the start of the Zoom meeting.

Then the entire grid of black squares suddenly lit up. My coworkers started turning their cameras on, grinning and obviously trying hard not to laugh. Our group chat was going crazy.

Then my manager goes, “Thank you for the feedback, Pit. Noted.”

Two weeks later, we got an email about a “salary structure review meeting.” Guess it worked? I wouldn’t know. I submitted my resignation letter the same day that email went out.

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