8 ms·
I know the whole world is obsessed with zoom calls currently, and sometimes its a good thing to see peoples faces in meetings. But I've found that just talking
by ImprovedSilence 6y ago
I know the whole world is obsessed with zoom calls currently, and sometimes its a good thing to see peoples faces in meetings. But I've found that just talking over the phone to be much less taxing than zoom. The fatigue is real! To the point where me and a few co-workers can just be conferenced in over the phone, and sometimes not talking for minutes at a time while working, but then collaborate at a seconds notice as if we were sharing an office again. (not that i'm advocating doing this for hours on end)
Also, I don't know if this is in my head or just speaker or mic quality, or on phone/network noise cancellation, or what, but I've found landline calls to be much more clear and easy to converse than zoom or cell phone calls. I think that may be where some of the fatigue comes from.
- dvtrn 6y agoTalking on the phone at least means I can make a sandwich as we’re talking about what to talk about in the zoom meeting to have a briefing about the 2021 roadmap planning meeting. Harder to do that over zoom because of an org policy that include the words “camera on”
- dtech 6y agoI have the exact opposite experience. I can't have a phone call while doing something else since I don't have a hands-free set. With a wireless headset connected to my computer I have much more freedom, and at least I can continue some low-key work during meetings which aren't all that interesting or have a lull
- ben509 6y agoMy phone can point at my ceiling with the camera on...
- orwin 6y agoMy three month lockdown was basically "i don't have a camera", followed by "i'm waiting for the `amazon concurrent know to be slower` order to arrive" and then "sorry, this driver doesn't work on my kernel" (yes i did downgrade my kernel for this). By the end of the lockdown i still didn't have a camera and my manager stop caring.
- lovecg 6y agoMight be latency. Landline travels at the speed of light, while some video calls I’ve been in had latency measured in _seconds_. It turns meetings into carefully orchestrated back and forth and makes any kind of spontaneous communication impossible.
- piva00 6y ago> It turns meetings into carefully orchestrated back and forth and makes any kind of spontaneous communication impossible. This is my (and my team's) main problem right now. We like working from home but it broke down any kind of interactive process/exercise, every meeting for a workshop becomes this choreography of: how to ask for a spot to speak, how to leave space for others to take that spot, who will facilitate that. It kills any spontaneous take or realisation that you could bring up in a meeting room. It feels like everyone has to stay in a queue to have time to speak. A lot of times it's happened that people forgot what they wanted to say or the conversation went way past that point and people don't feel like backtracking the discussion. I can say that people feel like they should only speak up and state *really important things™" but often the small unsaid things are really valuable. It really sucks, I thrive in environments where I can pick up bits and pieces of information and glue them together into something meaningful to my team, I can't really do that remotely (not without pestering people or trying to have scheduled coffee breaks to just chat).
- darkerside 6y agoI've been taking notes during meetings just for my own benefit, and often refer to them later in that same meeting to bring a topic up that I missed. Also helpful to review at the end to see if there are unclear action items, etc.
- ImprovedSilence 6y agofor some of the spontaneity, and interactive process, I feel like using a group chat (we use our own IRC server) for the bulk of technical talk works, and keeps everyone up to date, even if they aren't paying attention at any given time. Its like a big long meeting that never ends. But you can leave for 2 hrs, and come back and get all caught up in no time. Granted, my team is <10 people, so the room never gets overwhelming, and it's easy to break out sub rooms or direct chats for whatever else, or join rooms from another team for whatever reason. All that being said, in the past few months I've tried to also keep some light hearted banter going in the room too, I like to think it helps some co-workers to participate more than they otherwise would. Or maybe I'm just a luddite that likes landlines and IRC....