OK, Zoomer!
Video meeting participants dish dirt on rude, ‘clueless’ co-workers
As employees began working from home to comply with COVID-19 realities and shelter-in-place requirements, the need for visual contact among co-workers created a boom for the video-conference industry. Unfortunately, the online meetings didn’t come with behavior instructions. For the most part, employees used a baptism-by-fire approach to learning the do’s and don’ts of meeting with their co-workers online. Still, more than two months after most work-from-home initiatives, it’s pretty obvious that not everyone is tuned into what is and isn’t appropriate online.
We asked video-conference participants to share their biggest pet peeves. Here’s what they had to say:
“People who do the walk-and-talk thing, like they’re part of a documentary or something. We have a guy who walks through his house, up and down the stairs, outside to get his mail. It’s non-stop. It makes me seasick.” -R.G., West Chicago, Illinois
“People who have music on in the background. As soon as they come off mute, you just hear this awful music, like an AM radio. You have to remind them to turn it off.” -Joseph Rinaldi, Chicago
“People in bed. Like propped up with pillows and working from bed. So dumb and annoying. They think life is a movie, I guess. We have two people in our workgroup who do that and it drives me crazy. They’re clueless. They’re not taken seriously.” -Ryan L., Grand Rapids, Michigan
“Unmuted microphones; people paying attention to something else.” -Anonymous, Gurnee, Illinois
“Eaters. People who chomp on food during meetings. It is so rude! Even if I can’t hear it, I have to watch it and it grosses me out. Same with people who drink out of those squeeze bottles.
They look like hamsters sucking on that little tube on the side of their cages. I want to say ‘do you see yourself? You look like a little piggie.’ But I don’t. I do screenshot them, though, and share them with my friends and we all make snarky remarks. I want to make them meme famous, but I’d probably lose my job.” -T.M., Naperville, Illinois
“People who stare down at their desk or their hands or whatever. I don’t know the answer to this problem, really, because I know I do it, too. I mean, we’re all looking at things on our desk or on another screen but be a little more subtle about it. Try looking up every once in a while so we know you’re paying attention.” -Cheryl A., Ocala, Florida
“My students ‘chat’ with one another while I’m teaching, regardless of how many times I ask them not to. It’s just like talking when the teacher is speaking.” -LAL, Elmwood Park, Illinois “How about people with dogs on their laps. And then they pull the dog up every few minutes so everyone can see their dog? Like they hold it up and push the dog’s stupid face into the camera. Seriously, is this show and tell? Are you six years old? It’s a dog. Most of us have one. I have two dogs. I don’t put them up on my lap when I’m working. And if I did, I wouldn’t feel the need to show them to you. No one cares.” -Rebecca N., Chicago
“People who cannot sit still, walking around with their phone.” -Kevin O., Chicago
“An unmuted microphone when there’s obviously a lot of background noise around you, sometimes another person actually talking in the background.” -Angie, Chicago
“People who go outside. Yes, it’s a nice day but I don’t need to see the people walking down your block or your dog running around your yard. I was on a call where a guy was sitting in his yard and his daughters were laying out behind him. I don’t know if he knew it or not. If he did, that’s extra creepy. If he didn’t, he’s just dumb. One time he did a call from his hammock. We had to watch him swinging back and forth and his neck was all pushed up into his face. Not a good look.” -S.B., Kenosha, Wisconsin
“So annoying when the kids jump in front of the screen, then we all have to say hello to the kids and spend more time on the computer, just increasing everyone’s zoom fatigue.” -JM, Chicago
“It bugs me when people are looking at themselves all the time. They see something on their face and they scratch it off. Or maybe they wipe their eyes. It’s just so distracting. And we had a person who, in the middle of a Zoom, started putting on makeup. Really?” -Sarah J., Lancaster, Pennsylvania
“People who apologize for saying they couldn’t get off mute. ‘Oh sorry, I was having trouble getting off of mute. [In other words,] ‘I was multitasking and not paying any attention.’” -Cameron Sullivan, Arlington Heights, Illinois
“People who yell. We have two yellers in our conferences and I have to turn down my volume when they speak and they turn it up with they’re done.” -H.A., Peotone, Illinois
“Biggest pet peeve would have to be those who do not mute when not speaking.” -Michael Gaines, San Francisco