3 ms·

There aren't any meeting rooms at your office? I think every place I've been, even the startups had some kind of conference call mic setup on the table, althou

There aren't any meeting rooms at your office? I think every place I've been, even the startups had some kind of conference call mic setup on the table, although I don't think every place had a cam. It's possible for the "room" to join the call and those who must join over video.

Johnny555 4y ago
We have a number of those rooms and a greater number of one or 2 person "phone rooms", even now without everyone back in the office, those are fully booked at some times. It was a big problem before COVID too -- we'd usually do 1:1 meetings outside because it was easier than trying to find a conference room -- you'd have to find an open spot in each person's schedule and an open room at the same time, which was hard to get.
loloquwowndueo 4y ago
A conference room full of people is a nightmare for remote meetings - audio quality is horrendous and it’s very hard to make out what people in the speakerphone setup are saying. Everyone having their own headset makes for a much better experience for everyone. Unless the meeting is primarily in person with a few remote participants - then those get left out and have trouble catching up. Hybrid remote doesn’t work - go either fully on-prem or fully remote.
- wollsmoth 4y ago
  I haven't had that experience but I'm sure quality setups don't come cheap. Actually... the polycom setups don't seem that expensive. Idk, I guess I haven't experienced major issues with that personally.
  - avisser 4y ago
    I can't tell you how many times I've been on a call w/ a room full of people & a PolyCom system... and then the Zoom meeting is hosted on some asshole's laptop mic. It's hard to do the right thing sometimes.
UnpossibleJim 4y ago
But you're still in a meeting room on a video call, so why not just be on a video call if the rest of your day is spent in isolation with headphones on with all the inconveniences of office travel. What is the upside? Especially when there are open office plans with no assigned desks (as has been mentioned above - luckily, I haven't actually worked at a "non assigned desk role yet), which is f'ing dehumanizing.
- wollsmoth 4y ago
  Sounds like you're asking what's the upside vs wfh. I'm saying if y'all are at the office anyway, get into a room for the meeting instead of taking the call at your desks. If you're wfh anyway, yeah just call in over video.
  - UnpossibleJim 4y ago
    Oh, I'm just asking, if you have to set up a video call in the office anyways (which is often the case, these days, due to multiple teams working in other parts of the country and off-shoring) and the rest of your time is spent siloed with headphones to block out noise, due to office distractions - the reported upsides of the office (collaboration, community, teamwork, shared sense of purpose, closeness to fellow coworkers, etc.) all seem to fall away. What then, becomes the real argument for having an "only work at the office" policy and reviews not be based on the metrics of work done and quality of work? And you are correct, my question was horribly phrased before =) EDIT: and just for reference, I lead a small team and am not really management and we're still remote. We seem to do well and these are the metrics we go by, so I'm generally kind of curious about this. Occasionally my manager asks about hours worked, and I'm vague about it, but our output is better than most teams and of a high quality, so she doesn't peak inside too often =/

Johnny555 4y ago

We have a number of those rooms and a greater number of one or 2 person "phone rooms", even now without everyone back in the office, those are fully booked at some times. It was a big problem before COVID too -- we'd usually do 1:1 meetings outside because it was easier than trying to find a conference room -- you'd have to find an open spot in each person's schedule and an open room at the same time, which was hard to get.

loloquwowndueo 4y ago

A conference room full of people is a nightmare for remote meetings - audio quality is horrendous and it’s very hard to make out what people in the speakerphone setup are saying. Everyone having their own headset makes for a much better experience for everyone. Unless the meeting is primarily in person with a few remote participants - then those get left out and have trouble catching up. Hybrid remote doesn’t work - go either fully on-prem or fully remote.

wollsmoth 4y ago
I haven't had that experience but I'm sure quality setups don't come cheap. Actually... the polycom setups don't seem that expensive. Idk, I guess I haven't experienced major issues with that personally.
- avisser 4y ago
  I can't tell you how many times I've been on a call w/ a room full of people & a PolyCom system... and then the Zoom meeting is hosted on some asshole's laptop mic. It's hard to do the right thing sometimes.

UnpossibleJim 4y ago

But you're still in a meeting room on a video call, so why not just be on a video call if the rest of your day is spent in isolation with headphones on with all the inconveniences of office travel. What is the upside? Especially when there are open office plans with no assigned desks (as has been mentioned above - luckily, I haven't actually worked at a "non assigned desk role yet), which is f'ing dehumanizing.

wollsmoth 4y ago
Sounds like you're asking what's the upside vs wfh. I'm saying if y'all are at the office anyway, get into a room for the meeting instead of taking the call at your desks. If you're wfh anyway, yeah just call in over video.
- UnpossibleJim 4y ago
  Oh, I'm just asking, if you have to set up a video call in the office anyways (which is often the case, these days, due to multiple teams working in other parts of the country and off-shoring) and the rest of your time is spent siloed with headphones to block out noise, due to office distractions - the reported upsides of the office (collaboration, community, teamwork, shared sense of purpose, closeness to fellow coworkers, etc.) all seem to fall away. What then, becomes the real argument for having an "only work at the office" policy and reviews not be based on the metrics of work done and quality of work? And you are correct, my question was horribly phrased before =) EDIT: and just for reference, I lead a small team and am not really management and we're still remote. We seem to do well and these are the metrics we go by, so I'm generally kind of curious about this. Occasionally my manager asks about hours worked, and I'm vague about it, but our output is better than most teams and of a high quality, so she doesn't peak inside too often =/