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In remote work, there’s a fine line between “I have my life together” and “I just recommended an NSFW website to my HR team.”

And trust me, I’ve tripped over that line more than once.

Like the time I was in the most important meeting of my career, forgot my camera was on, ran to the bathroom, and came back still zipping up my pants…

Or when the grumpiest guy on our engineering team, legit famous for his death stares, suddenly became a little less robot and a little more human because his son appeared in the background completely naked, sprinting along the bookshelf like an absolute feral Cirque du Soleil act.

Then there was the time people kept apologizing for their kids wandering into Zoom calls, so our CEO handed the mic to his six-year-old to run the company all-hands that gently signaled “yo, in case you forgot, we all have actual lives outside of these screens.”

And of course, the day I was on an HR team call discussing bidets, confidently recommended the brand “Tushy,” and told everyone to check out tushy dot com. (Pro tip: that is… very much not the bidet website.)

It’s right up there with the time I went out on my own as a consultant, proudly told my first potential client to visit my site, www.shiftwithdarcymarie.com, and accidentally left out the “f.” I’ll let you do the math on what that spelled out. Not exactly the brand debut I had in mind.

Look, these are funny stories, and they're actually the whole goddamn point. Remote work isn’t meant to be spotless. It’s meant to be yours.

Your life isn’t perfect, so get over trying to make it look like that.

An on-camera zipper moment, a “wrong Tushy” recommendation, or forgetting the “f” in your own website? Let it live in your origin story, and for the love of all things remote, laugh about it later. Preferably now, while I’m telling this to you at home (and silently praying you’re laughing with me).

The mess isn’t a flaw. It's THE feature.
It’s what makes you human, magnetic, and the kind of person people want in their corner.

Perfect is boring. You are not.

Hot Tip: Turn Your Chaos Into Currency

Stop dodging the awkward stuff, start collecting it.

Keep a running “legend list” of your best remote bloopers. Not to mine your life for content, but to remember (and remind others) that you’re human in a world of (too many) perfectly curated moments. 

Every zipper incident, URL mishap, or rogue background cameo? That’s a greatest hit. And people remember the humans who can turn chaos into a good story.

Got one worth telling? Share it with me at hello@shiftwithdarcymarie.com - WITH AN F.