Americans are secretly cooking during virtual meetings, with one age group leading the way

17% of employees admit to secretly cooking during video calls—cameras off, aprons on; Gen Z cranks it to 26%, treating corporate syncs like a cooking show audition.
The real horror show: 23% have used the bathroom mid-meeting (please tell us they muted), 14% shop online, and 13% work out—apparently, 'agile' now applies to bicep curls.
A whopping 30% of Gen Z have dozed off camera-off, proving the 'new world of work' smells suspiciously like a nap pod.
Experts scream the obvious: camera off or on, you're still in a meeting. But one CEO admits his colleague once live-streamed a bathroom trip—so maybe 'secret' isn't the right word.
The real culprit? Bloated meetings. Bosses pack calendars like a Thanksgiving leftover sandwich, so workers multitask to survive. Solution: fewer, shorter calls—or embrace the chaos and start a cooking channel.

Brief Summary

A new survey from Bluedot (an AI meeting tool—shameless plug detected) reveals that 17% of American workers are playing 'Chopped' during virtual meetings with cameras off, while 26% of Gen Z are practically running a Michelin-star kitchen. But wait, it gets worse: 23% have used the bathroom (hope they didn't forget to mute the mic), 14% are online shopping, and 13% are sweating through burpees—all while pretending to care about Q3 metrics. Twelve percent have flat-out fallen asleep, which jumps to a staggering 30% for Gen Z, suggesting the 'lazy generation' label might need a rebrand to 'exhausted.'

Why This Matters

Here's the pragmatic scoop: most of these meetings are waste-of-time theater anyway, but the invisible multitasking is a one-way ticket to career ruin. Miss a crucial directive while flipping pancakes, and you're suddenly the 'less engaged' employee—right before the next round of layoffs. The etiquette solution is laughably simple: if you're cooking, say 'brb' instead of pretending to nod. If you're asleep, send a fake 'connection issues' message like a civilized person. But let's be real—this data is less about worker laziness and more about bosses cramming calendars with pointless syncs. If you kill the bloat, people might actually stay awake and keep the knives in the drawer.