Employee overhears her coworker Megan talking about her "unmuted" on a work call, Megan tries to cover her tracks: 'I swear she loves the sound of her own voice'

Who hasn't had the experience of being on a work call with someone who can't exactly read the room well? This employee had the unfortunate experience of discovering that in the eyes of her coworker Megan, she was that person who always spoke out of turn and made meetings longer than they necessarily needed to be.

Of course, reading body language and interpreting social cues can be difficult to master on remote work calls, so we have to extend some sympathy to the folks out there who aren't registering that everyone else on the call wants the meeting to end. Still, you don't have to be in the room physically with your coworker to understand that you're wasting everyone's time. Most of these scenarios can be avoided if there is a set agenda to at least the vast majority of meetings. Of course, if a manager wants to schedule something more amorphous, like a catch-up or a brainstorming session, that's fine too, as long as they make those expectations clear from the start and stick to a loose schedule.

Otherwise, let's be real. The vast majority of team meetings can be run so much more smoothly if there is a bulleted list of what needs to be discussed during that time. After all, if you're the manager, you want to let people go when you can, not just so they can go back to their respective tasks and responsibilities, but also so that they don't resent you. Look, not every great employee makes a great manager. It's a totally separate skill, but it's an important one to learn if you don't want a coworker like Megan talking about you behind your back.

Keep scrolling below for the author's account of what happened when Megan accidentally said what she was thinking out loud…

Author image for Ben Weiss Ben Weiss
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terrible coworkers workplace-stories teams employee work stories toxic-workplace job work coworkers work call company toxic-work-environment
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