So this happened about a week ago but the shame is still raw.
My boss just came back from paternity leave and brought his newborn into the office for a short visit. Everyone gathered around to admire the baby. It was one of those classic office scenes with people cooing and saying how beautiful he was.
Now here’s the thing: I panic when I don’t know what to say. So when it was my turn to say something about the baby, I nervously chuckled and said, “He kinda looks like a little Winston Churchill, doesn’t he?”
Silence. Like, absolute silence. Even the baby stopped making noise. My boss just stared at me and awkwardly said, “…he’s three weeks old.”
I tried to explain I meant it in a cute way, like, you know, all babies kinda have that wrinkly, wise look but the damage was done. A few coworkers laughed but it was not a good laugh.
I haven’t been fired. Yet. But I definitely got a few emails about “professionalism in the workplace” forwarded to the whole team the next day.
TL;DR: Called my boss’s newborn a wrinkly old British man. May be on thin ice now.
Comments
Next time use a facial recognition app to avoid this crazy blunder. Hope you boss doesn’t hold a grudge.
No come on that’s hilarious you just work with a bunch of dorks
lol thank you for the chuckle. I’ve made similar mistakes.
Professionalism in the workplace? That went out the door when someone brought in an underage human with emotional regulation issues and a propensity to shit themselves!
Fuck that guy, professional would be not bringing an infant to work and getting upset someone noticed the baby looks like a little Whinnie Church.
“We will fight them on the beaches…”
I would have laughed if you’d said that about my babies. And they were girls.
Supposedly Churchill once said, “All babies look like me. But then, I look like all babies.”
All babies look like Winston Churchill. Why the stick up the guy’s ass?
Don’t most babies look like Winston Churchill. The people who you work with are too uptight.
I would honestly be honored if someone told me my baby looked like Winston Churchill.
I mean, many babies at 3 weeks old come a WHOLE lot uglier than that.
All babies look like Winston Churchill, you were 100% correct
To be fair, all babies look like Winston Churchill.
Yes! Thank you! First real hearty laugh of the day! 90% of babies look completely fucked up, an alien, or old weird men.
That’s hilarious
Most babies look like Winston Churchill. Just don’t mention that to their parents. The babies will become much better looking as they age.
I tell my own baby that he looks like Winston Churchill lol! I think it’s hilarious. Babies look like grumpy old men
Those are inside thoughts haha
No joke, my father often told me that all newborns look like Winston Churchill and that I was no exception!
We affectionately called my oldest Winston for the first month or so for the same reason. We still laugh about it and she’s 10 now lol.
Lots of babies look like him lol
https://imgur.com/gallery/baby-churchill-rzaHj
Did the baby resemble the top middle or bottom?
I would’ve laughed. Your boss and coworkers sound uptight.
Look, if a baby is ugly, there is no shame in calling that baby ugly. I think all babies are ugly. Wrinkled little shittlings….
They all kinda do. Him or Khrushchev.
Most babies look like Winston Churchill. The guy looked a lot like a baby!
that’s what he gets for making people admire a baby
Yeah your coworkers suck
Baby is way too young to be smoking cigars
This would just get a laugh in most normal offices
You did nothing wrong, newborn infants barely look human. If your coworkers reacted the same way it tells me your boss is uptight as hell.
Lol, I wouldn’t worry about it. My son looked like him too. I photoshopped him a bowler hat and cigar. My wife still has the photo in a frame on her office desk.
The first things I said to my wife about my beautiful daughter were
“It’s a girl!”
Followed shortly by
“She looks like Mr. Burns”
“He’s only 3 weeks old.”
“Oh so he’ll grow into it you mean?”
Can confirm, my twins are almost 3 weeks old and they are mini Winston Churchills
The most commonly cited quote attributed to Winston Churchill regarding babies is: “All babies look like me. But then, I look like all babies.”. This humorous observation is often shared in the context of discussions about the appearance of newborns and Churchill’s own distinctive features, according to the National Churchill Museum.
Just tell them you were referring to this!
I keep telling my mother I looked like I should have had a cigar. I was not a cute little baby girl. I had a giant melon head and I told her I didn’t want this framed pic of me looking like Winston Churchill.
And I’m sending her this post to prove my point. Thank you.
My baby also looked like Winston Churchill, and my husband and I often said so.
When you are bald and chubby, there are worse figures to be compared to!
Even the baby stopped making noise
Maybe people will thank you later.
While I care deeply about the welfare of babies (my work actually involves it), I very, VERY rarely actually find them cute especially ones under 5-6 months. I learned long ago to make sure and say how adorable they are over and over. It is just something you have to do. But if I had witnessed this myself I am afraid I was have been howling on the inside (and maybe out laud) and probably be treating you to drinks after.
Ya…wrong crowd clearly. Most jobs ive worked people wouldn’t understand, or they would find it hilarious. Cause newborns do look like old men.
‘It was one of those classic office scenes…’
‘Silence. Like, absolute silence. Even the baby stopped making noise. My boss just stared at me…’
‘But I definitely got a few emails about “professionalism in the workplace”…’
AI. No one gets in trouble for saying something innocuous like a baby looks like Winston Churchill
Do better, ChatGPT
Okay, this was actually hilarious and those people have no sense of humor. Especially that addendum about “wrinkly, wise look” is funny af 😀
Professionalism in the work place has no place for babies whether they look like Winston Churchill or not.