When our company updated computers more than a year ago, the new Macs came with video capabilities… just a tiny square in the center of the top, something I easily ignored. But some of my coworkers were quick to cover it with tape. “We don’t want IT accessing our computers and watching us at our desks!” I hadn’t thought of this and quickly covered my camera with tape too. I was 99.9 percent sure IT wouldn’t find me picking my nose or doing anything blackmail-worthy, but the very idea felt like a violation of privacy. Once I’d covered my camera with tape, I added another layer. They’re trying to spy on the wrong girl.

As time passed, the tape was replaced with a band-aid left over from a photo shoot (unused, in case you were worried. Or grossed out). The band-aid eventually fell off, leaving my camera exposed. I never used the camera on my computer (didn’t even know how if I wanted to) so gradually it wasn’t even an issue anymore.

Until last week when a box popped up on my computer screen at 6 p.m. from my next door cube mate to have a video chat. I was caught off guard. I looked at the video of myself that appeared and then broke into giggles when I saw him flash across my screen too. We made silly faces, stuck out our tongues, crossed our eyes, moved our heads across the screen and waved. For a few minutes, I forgot all about the status of my layouts and everything I had to do until he ended our session to get back to work.

Then I was sad.

So I decided to video chat my friend across the cube farm. Her confused and surprised face was priceless as she tried to figure out what was going on. We experimented with sound (it went through, but we didn’t want to make too much noise and disrupt our coworkers). We freaked out when someone walked behind our desks, only to have them stop, approach our screens and start laughing. And then join in on the fun. Laughter started spreading across the cubes. My friend’s cube neighbor even popped up and started waving and making faces too.

In the moment, I know the goofing off didn’t help get anything done, but it made us laugh and it made us happy, which was enough to fuel the rest of our evening staying late to finish our projects.

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