Many people may know that I am a Teleworker and spend lots of time interacting with clients and coworkers over the phone. Over time, I have come to smile when experiencing the following scenarios:

• A child is heard in the background - preferably screaming, crying or yellingS
• Someone's dog is heard barking in the background
• Someone openly admits to be pacing in their kitchen (or insert room name here) rather than watching your virtual room presentation
• You hear the tail end of a toilet flushing or someone washing their hands
• Someone goes on hold and your conference call lights up with elevator music or an automated message notifying you that you're on hold, and begins selling you some telecom service
• The Mailman, UPS, Fed Ex, DHL or some other entity arrives at the door and someone has to answer
• Someone is heard washing dishes
• Someone is multi-tasking on two or more calls and fails to mute their line when engaged heavily on the "other" calls  Landscapers or workers (home repair - anything)  in the background