Work colleagues

[TheScarf]

3 minutes ago, KnightswoodBear said:

Yep.  What I generally find happens on these things is that it's always the person with the worst broadband connection in the world that decides they need their camera on, which just leads to an hour of listening to them breaking up and clipping like f**k.

It's a glorified phone call.  We don't all need to see each other sitting gawping at our screens.

That's it for me, I don't need to see 8 or 9 colleagues all sat there with thousand yard stares, some sat so close to the camera you can see each individual pore on their face and others sat so far away from theirs you're not actually sure if it's even them.  All in incredibly poorly lit rooms I might add.

[Central Belt Caley]

20 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

On the subject of Teams meetings, my work has made it official policy to have your camera on for every meeting.  With the reason being 'so everyone can engage with the subject(s) and not get distracted'.

Yeah great, so now I can't be seen replying to emails, Teams messages, requests for the next 90 minutes and sit with my arms folded being bored to death listening to something that doesn't affect my job or life in any way, shape or form, instead of getting on with my fairly busy job.  This is the same mob who go on about trying to increase employee efficiency. Superb.

And I can't sit on my phone.

I work for a fairly small company and my boss will say to me before particular meetings that I can keep my camera off and work in the background and he’ll shout if he needs my input.
 

Forcing everyone to put their camera on is just nonsense especially if it’s not something you’ll be contributing to

12 minutes ago, KnightswoodBear said:

Meeting starts and she's there, camera on, in her immaculate kitchen, looking like shes been up since about 3 doing her hair and makeup.  She then proceeds to passive aggressively get everyone to put their cameras on so she can "put names to faces". Folk start putitng theirs on and there are more than a few that look even worse than i do.

I’m fully remote at work and have clients that work from home who join calls wearing shirts when I’m sat in a hoodie and some joggers 

[Rugster]

13 minutes ago, KnightswoodBear said:

Yep.  What I generally find happens on these things is that it's always the person with the worst broadband connection in the world that decides they need their camera on, which just leads to an hour of listening to them breaking up and clipping like f**k.

It's a glorified phone call.  We don't all need to see each other sitting gawping at our screens.

During lockdown I got away with not putting my camera on for months by just saying it wasn't working. Eventually they said we'll get IT to look at it for you so I was thinking of ways to break it so I wouldn't get found out. I went to switch it on and claim "Oh it's working it just needed an upgrade" and it genuinely wouldn't come on. So I got away with it. They did fix it though unfortunately.

[Derry Alli]

17 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

I remember teaching online during lockdown. Every student had cameras and microphones off. It was like being a DJ, talking into the ether.

I have no idea how tou guys have restraint not to just put DJ Badboy on and see their reactions and the like.

[itzdrk]

11 minutes ago, Derry Alli said:

I have no idea how tou guys have restraint not to just put DJ Badboy on and see their reactions and the like.

 

 

[Swarley]

Yep get that "would be great if everyone could put their cameras on" pish a lot. So everyone turns on their cameras, the quality of the call turns to shit and everyone turns them off again. 

[hk blues]

I'm not getting the problem with cameras being on.  Isn't everybody looking at other stuff i.e. P&B, during meetings so not looking at the screen anyway? 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Were now mostly face to face meetings at work these days.

I just take the laptop along and browse P&B get on with replying to very important emails during the meeting . 

[Wacky]

Someone has probably touched on this. 
where I work there is a laddie in his mid twenties that was fast tracked to assistant manager via his uncle. He seems to think that perpetually taking the hard line In almost every situation is the way to go. We all know that respect has to be earned not demanded, and the laddie has now lost the dressing room. His uncle is trying to win it back for him, but is struggling.
The laddie should consider apologising to the people he has shat on, then try a different tactic in dealing with staff. 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Wacky

[Peil]

5 minutes ago, Wacky said:

Someone has probably touched on this. 
where I work there is a laddie in his mid twenties that was fast tracked to assistant manager via his uncle. He seems to think that perpetually taking the hard line In almost every situation is the way to go. We all know that respect has to be earned not demanded, and the laddie has now lost the dressing room. His uncle is trying to win it back for him, but is struggling.
The laddie should consider apologising to the people he has shat on, then try a different tactic in dealing with staff. 

That would imply he has the self awareness to recognise his mistake, and that his ego will allow him to acknowledge it publically

[BFTD]

10 hours ago, scottsdad said:

I remember teaching online during lockdown. Every student had cameras and microphones off. It was like being a DJ, talking into the ether.

I was on the other end of that for a while and didn't have a microphone to start with, so it became a room of silence with me occasionally replying by text when the lecturer would pause and say "can everyone hear me? Are you all there? Hello?!"  The best was when one of my classmates logged in on his phone from bed with his microphone on and immediately went back to sleep, so we were treated to ten minutes of his snoring before he got muted  

The occasional time we were asked to put cameras on, my cat would have invariably decided to was time to sit on my lap and relentlessly knead my beard; I'd guess that would've been one of the least disturbing sights you could have been subjected to.

[RH33]

None of our meetings have cameras on. Weekly team meeting we log in and have one ear on the catch up and work away. Team lead happy enough with that. 

[scottsdad]

1 minute ago, RH33 said:

None of our meetings have cameras on. Weekly team meeting we log in and have one ear on the catch up and work away. Team lead happy enough with that. 

I usually keep my camera on. Stare into it, giving my shy colleagues the evil eye. 

 

[Swarley]

[TheScarf]

3 hours ago, Swarley said:

That’s basically what I see x8 every time I have a Teams call now.

[Jacksgranda]

On 15/11/2023 at 09:41, KnightswoodBear said:

At the height of lockdown, I had to go on a teams meeting with a new project manager for a contract I was working on.  Meeting was at 8 or 9 am.  I did my usual and sat at the computer in my bombsite of an office in the house, jammies still on, not shaved for days and hair that hadn't been cut for about 3 months all over the place.

Meeting starts and she's there, camera on, in her immaculate kitchen, looking like shes been up since about 3 doing her hair and makeup.  She then proceeds to passive aggressively get everyone to put their cameras on so she can "put names to faces". Folk start putitng theirs on and there are more than a few that look even worse than i do.

She was very politely told to get fucked, which meant that for the rest of the time she was on the project she had it in for me.

She wasn't on it very long mind you as she was absolutely hopeless. 

Should that not be faces to names?

I was once dragged over to London - well, I flew, actually - for a completely pointless meeting. I think the client was just flexing his muscles, and wanted to exercise a bit of power. Although I suppose it does help to meet folk in person rather than just conversing via e-mail and phone calls.

[Jacksgranda]

On 15/11/2023 at 09:52, scottsdad said:

I remember teaching online during lockdown. Every student had cameras and microphones off. It was like being a DJ, talking into the ether.

"Chief Inspector - reactivate Operation Yew Tree."

[MEADOWXI]

On 15/11/2023 at 10:26, Swarley said:

Yep get that "would be great if everyone could put their cameras on" pish a lot. So everyone turns on their cameras, the quality of the call turns to shit and everyone turns them off again. 

 

On 15/11/2023 at 10:28, hk blues said:

I'm not getting the problem with cameras being on.  Isn't everybody looking at other stuff i.e. P&B, during meetings so not looking at the screen anyway? 

Cameras are mostly off, but for the odd one that is on, I have the camera positioned so I can still scroll and read stuff on 2nd screen while the meeting is on, and if that isn't distracting enough cameras on tends to see me paying too much attention to folks backgrounds and surrounds as I judge them by books on their shelfs, or ornaments or photos, or wallpaper, hairdo, bad glasses, anything really rather than pay attention to the call.

Best is cameras off, no faffing about its just a call and back to work.

[Michael W]

I don't mind having my camera on in a meeting where I'm a main contributor.  I find it's better for preventing interruptions as people can see the visual cues - Teams meetings do suffer disadvantages in that regard. But not everyone in the meeting is an active participant and many of them probably have things that they really need to get done. Cameras being mandated on whilst someone is clearly focused on doing something else does nothing to enhance the meeting. 

And yes, it does also provide the opportunity for a little disengagement too. There are too many meetings, some of which could've been emails. 

  

Edited November 16, 2023 by Michael W

[effeffsee_the2nd]

maybe slightly off topic here but anyway,

Since leaving school, for the last 18 years I've worked almost exclusively with other blokes, whether it's been in an office or on a site,  for the last 3 months for the first time ever really I've been working in a space that's more or less 50/50. 

by f**k, women do not like other women.  I thought that was just a misogynistic stereotype as well