Boss accidentally turned herself into a potato during video meeting and couldn't fix it

Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 2, 2020. It has since been updated.

For those of us who are fortunate enough to still have jobs, this pandemic era of seemingly endless work-from-home days has come with a unique set of challenges. From figuring out how to juggle our professional and personal responsibilities without daily/hourly meltdowns to having our technical abilities put to the test with all these new fancy video conferences and meetings, it's been quite a journey for some of us. Well, now this (truthfully, privileged) struggle has an official face linked to it and although it was the result of a complete accident, we couldn't come up with something more fitting even if we tried.

World, meet the Potato boss:

This right here is the magnificent regal mascot we work-from-homers didn't know we needed. It is the accidental masterpiece of Lizet Ocampo, the political director at People for the American Way—a progressive advocacy organization that works to build democracy through a number of means, including encouraging Latinx voters to vote and helping progressive candidates win elections. Like many of us, since the outbreak, Ocampo and her colleagues have been working remotely, coordinating with each other via emails, messages, calls, and video conferences. 

In this period, Ocampo has been taking part in a regular virtual happy hour for community leaders hosted by Equis as part of her work with Latinx voters. To add a bit of pizazz to these sessions, she recently downloaded some funny face filters to entertain other participants. However, she kinda sorta forgot that she'd set up the filters and when the time came for a team meeting on Monday, Ocampo and her colleagues saw a potato staring back at them from the screen. "So Monday morning, we had our meeting and I usually try to do a camera, and when we started the meeting, I saw myself as a potato," she explained to BuzzFeed News.

"I was so confused as to why I was a potato," she said. "Of all the things I could be, why a potato?" It was only then that she remembered the funny filters she'd previously downloaded. However, that didn't really do much to help because she couldn't for the life of her figure out how to turn the potato filter off. Meanwhile, as you can imagine, her colleagues were enjoying a hearty laugh over their new potato boss. "As a progressive organization, we fight for justice for all and access to opportunities, and in the last three-plus years, it’s been a little tough," Ocampo explained.

"I just kind of gave up and stayed as a potato for the rest of the call," she revealed. Little did she know that her colleague Rachele would immortalize the moment on the internet by sharing a snap of the call on Twitter. The tweet has since been retweeted over 215k times and the internet just can't seem to get enough of potato boss. With responses pouring in from all corners of the world, Ocampo owned the incident like an absolute queen and tweeted: I yam potato boss. You should see me in a crown, right @billieeilish? I yam glad this is making folks laugh at this time. Please stay planted at home and safe! Potate out. #HASHtag #PotatoBoss

Check out how the Twitterverse reacted to the potato boss:

You heard her, folks. Stay safe and planted at home!