We've all done it: You get put on hold while you're chatting with the bank or your energy supplier, and you find yourself singing along to the hold music while you wait to be put through to an employee who can help you.
If the call isn't going well, you might even have muttered something under your breath because you think no one can hear you.
If you've ever found yourself in either of these situations, then we've got some unfortunate news for you - as it turns out that call operators can still hear you once you've been put on hold.
The mortifying news recently resurfaced when writer Ej Dickson took to Twitter to share her horror after she began singing along to the hold music - and her call operator commented on her performance.
She wrote: "Today I learned that if someone puts you on hold and you sing along to the on-hold music and make up your own lyrics, people can in fact hear you and will in fact say something about it."
Commenters on Ej's tweet were equally horrified, as the realisation dawned on many who had done embarrassing things while on hold in the past that might have been heard by the people on the other end of the line.
One person said: "Oh god. I've acted out entire scenes from Les Miserables while on hold."
And another simply commented: "Oh no... what?!"
Thankfully, you don't have to spend your future calls worrying if someone can hear you while you're on hold, as we previously reported there's a way to tell if the call centre operator can hear everything you're saying.
According to a viral TikTok video, if you get put on hold and don't hear any music, then it's almost a guarantee that the operator can still hear you, as all they've done is mute themselves so you can't hear them.
The video revealed: "When a call centre puts you on hold and you don't hear music, it means you're on mute ... and they can hear everything you're saying (good and bad)."
In a post on Reddit, one former call operator explained that if you're rude about the person on the other end of the phone, it might explain why they're less likely to be helpful when they return.
They said: "The person you are talking to can hear you though you can't hear them. I used to work at a call centre reviewing calls, and you hear some funny things when people don't think they are being listened to."
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