ATLANTA, GA—At Helford Tank Inspections, LLC on Monday of this week, a standard meeting on the employee benefits plan entered an awkward moment when the presenter had a moment of audible flatulence. Greg Alexander, 32, the small company's human resources representative, was standing at the white board in the conference room, explaining some of the minor suggested changes to the healthcare benefit plan the company has. "I was just getting to the part about how deductibles will be going up just a little, but that it will be balanced out by a reduction in co-pays for most services," he explained. "Well anyway, it kind of came out of nowhere. I thought I had it under control, but I let it slip and was just in a position that, rather than muffling it, it seemed to amplify throughout the room." The gas passing was clear for the entire room to hear. It came at a moment of otherwise dead silence, and there was no corresponding movement that could have been associated with the sound, such as someone's chair creaking or scraping their shoe across a table leg. There was no denying that Alexander had just released gas from his anus into the conference room. At that moment, for about two full seconds, each person in the room made a conscious decision to remain outwardly unaffected by what they had just witnessed. No one exchanged glances. No one smirked. No one gave any indication that they had heard what they had. Even Alexander pretended that nothing untoward had occurred. Multiple witnesses of the awkward situation admitted to having seriously considered doing something. Alicia White, 37, stated, "I tried to think of some joke that would make light of the situation, but in the end, I figured probably the best move was to just pretend that I did not hear it." Martin Resnick, 31, related, "I almost said something to assure him [Alexander] that it was okay, and we didn't think any less of him. But after about a second of consideration, and no one else made a move, it just felt like the right thing was to stare stoically forward and hope for the meeting to end." Alexander, in retrospect, wishes that he had just continued on with his presentation after the awkward interruption, rather than pausing to assess each person's facial expressions. "I think it made matters worse that I sort of lost my train of thought after it happened. With each passing nanosecond, it became clearer that I needed to either address the elephant in the room or try and ignore it. My dignity was at stake, and I think I left the meeting with it a little singed." The meeting ended after another 10 minutes and, with the incident still at the forefront of everyone's mind, each tried to stay focused on what would be socially acceptable and supportive, feigning complete ignorance of the obvious, perfectly natural bodily function that had taken place before them. Upon reflection, Alexander appreciates that his coworkers did not draw more attention to the incident, even though it possessed all their thoughts for the remainder of the day, and it was all they would ever think about whenever they thought of him for the rest of their lives. Indeed, every single one of them posted something about it on social media, told the story to at least 3 other confidantes, and laughed about it multiple times as soon as they felt it was safe to do so. Alexander said that, in the future, he plans to skip his breakfast burrito on days when he'll be giving presentations.