CNN & The New Yorker Staff Caught Playing With Himself During Zoom Call & Was Suspended Immediately

Work meetings have looked very different in 2020.

Since the coronavirus has forced most employees to work from home, business meetings, conferences, and informal discussions have been held over video conferencing apps, with Zoom being the most popular one.

Because employees are at home, with only their top halves visible, there are some things you can get away with.

For instance, you could periodically move your head out of frame to snack on some potato chips, which would be incredibly unprofessional during a meeting at work.

You could also take a sneaky nap, as long as you turn your video off during the meeting.

What you shouldn’t do, however, is play with yourself while your video is on (or even if it’s off, really).

CNN Staff Caught Playing With Himself During Zoom Call & Was Suspended Immediately

A long-time staff writer at The New Yorker magazine has been suspended after he was caught masturbating during a Zoom work call earlier this month.

The man, legal expert Jeffrey Toobin, said he thought he was off-camera.

“I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera,” Toobin.

Oh yes, everyone knows that pleasuring yourself during a work meeting on Zoom is perfectly normal as long as you turn your video off.

Toobin was reportedly in a Zoom call with employees of the magazine as well as staff from WNYC, a New York City radio station.

As you know, Zoom users have the option of turning off their video or audio during a call.

Toobin said he thought his video had been turned off, but he was gravely mistaken, because this is what his colleagues saw.

Worked at Magazine for 25 Years

According to The Guardian, Toobin had worked at The New Yorker for 25 years.

The editor of the magazine, David Remnick, notified staff members of the suspension in an email:

“Dear All, As you may have read in various news reports today, one of our writers, Jeff Toobin, was suspended after an incident on a Zoom call last week. Please be assured that we take such matters seriously and that we are looking into it.”

The 60-year-old is also a senior legal analyst at CNN.

CNN issued a statement, saying that Toobin “has asked for some time off while he deals with a personal issue, which we have granted”.

As for Toobin, well, all he could do was say sorry.

“I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers. I thought I had muted the Zoom video, I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me,” he said.

Toobin’s tale should serve as a warning to everyone working from home: have fun with yourself whenever you like, but if you’re on a freaking video call with unconsenting adults, please keep your hands where your colleagues can see them.

Whether or not he had switched his video off, playing with yourself during a Zoom call with your co-workers is just creepy.

Investigations by the magazine are ongoing, and it remains to be seen if this gaffe will cost Toobin his job.