In a viral TikTok video, a remote worker showed how she tricked her boss into thinking she was working from home when she was actually on the beach in Ibiza, Spain.
In the clip, Zara (@ale_bnd) sits at a beach club surrounded by palm trees and a clear blue sky. She’s seen frantically throwing on and buttoning up a long sleeve top that can pass as workwear on a video call.
She explains that she had to scramble to look work-appropriate because her manager asked to do a “quick connect” on Microsoft Teams. For those unfamiliar with the app, Teams is Microsoft’s integrated work system, similar to a combo of Slack and Zoom.
@ale_bnd Why do they always wanna call you on teams while working from home!? 😭💀 #wfh2023 #ibiza #teams ♬ original sound – Ale_bnd
Zara conveniently has her work laptop with her and props it up on a surface with a pillow and towel underneath, creating an impromptu desk setup. She’s also seen quickly grabbing a tangled-up headset, and potentially a charger.
By the end of the 20-second clip, Zara made her way to an actual table where she took the work call. To make it more believable that she wasn’t out of the country, Zara set a fake video background and asked the waiter to open up the beach umbrella so it would look less sunny since it was raining at the time in Geneva, Switzerland, presumably where she lives and works.
In a comment reply, Zara added that she had noise impression on her headphones to cancel out the sound of the waves, wind, and children.
“Why do they always wanna call you on teams while working from home!?” Zara said in the caption.
The video resonated online, gaining more than 1.4 million views on TikTok ad hundreds of comments as of Thursday morning.
Microsoft’s official TikTok account even left a comment saying, “virtual backgrounds to save the day.”
Many commenters said it shouldn’t matter where workers are physically located as long as the work is getting done.
“If you can not tell your manager you are traveling, run. You work remote, you don’t need to be only at home as long as you deliver,” a person wrote.
Others shared that their jobs are much more strict about monitoring employee locations.
“My company set up the VPN now that if you connect in another country. it still detects your actual location,” a commenter said.
The Daily Dot reached out to Zara for comment via Instagram direct message.
