I have worked from home for more than twenty years. About five years ago, I was working with a team based out of Paris, France. I had set up a work area in the guest bedroom, and would often join a telephone conversation at 3:00 AM Raleigh, NC time. It was nine in the morning in Paris. These were just telephone conversations, so attire was less than formal. After the call, I would sometimes take a shower, but other times walked around in my underwear until the work day was over in France, which was about 11 AM stateside. Around 7 AM, I received a Sametime (instant messaging system for IBM) that I should join an urgent meeting. They sent a link, which I immediately clicked on. Now, there was a protocol for having a video meeting at IBM. One would activate their camera, be informed this was a video conference, and click on several screens before going live. Therefore, I was EXTREMELY surprised to see a roomful of my French colleagues sitting at a conference table, staring at me on the large screen. YIKES!! Fortunately, I had taken a shower earlier, and put on a decent shirt. I had NOT gotten to the pants portion of the dressing process, however. So, I reminded myself to not stand up or move until the meeting was over. But it never, ever occurred to me that just by clicking a link sent by Sametime I could be thrust into a live, video meeting. As I think what that roomful of people COULD have seen, I shudder to think what could have happened to our diplomatic relations with that country. And as a result of that surprise, I put a band-aid over the video camera, to ensure there was never a recurrence.