Embarrassing moment at EY 🤫

Sharing an old story:

I’ll never forget the Monday morning of that all-hands meeting at EY in 2020. It was one of those mega-virtual meetings where they had every office tuning in, live-streamed for employees across verticals. It was meant to be a big deal.

Now, a little about me: I’m one of the more introverted people in my team. I try to fly under the radar, keep my head down, and quietly do my work. I am scared of public speaking. I don't like being the centre of attention. But that Monday was my turn to give a presentation, and I was supposed to be in that big meeting along with everyone else.

So, the meeting’s halfway in, with senior leaders talking about how we’re all going to “lead the future of digital consulting in the pandemic.” I’m in my home, dressed up in a shirt + half-pajama outfit. My part is in the last 10 minutes, and I’m starting to get that nervous feeling as the time draws near. Trying to calm myself down, I pace around and grab a cup of coffee to steady my nerves.

As I’m listening, I hear one of the partners start introducing the Project Horizon case study I was set to present. Perfect. I had my slides ready, rehearsed my lines over the weekend, even practiced the voice inflections. And, because this was on Zoom, I figured I’d stay seated to avoid any potential catastrophes. Simple plan. Foolproof.

I unmute myself, say my name, and start to screen-share. And that’s when the email notification popped up.

Now, here’s a crucial detail: my colleague sent me a message saying that, "Woh tera khadoos boss bhi aaya hoga, par don't worry"

Of course, this was all up on screen, broadcasted to the ENTIRE fucking company, And there was no way out of it; everyone saw it. And they didn’t just see it: they were reacting to it in the chat. By the time I finished, I was super scared. And I could still see people laughing on mute while clapping.

After that, apparently her boss reached out to her and told her about unprofessionalism and all. She was anyways planning to resign so she resigned and he got scared.

Then, he offered her a promo + raise but she still said no and then it became a big thing in the office lmao.