I just looked at my watch and it’s August, 2022. In other words, it’s been a lot longer than the two weeks we all thought we would be at home. While a lot of folks have returned to the workplace, a lot haven’t. Remote work is popular with people, especially considering the cost of gas. Some companies have opened themselves up to the option like never before. Work from home is great, but certainly the worst part of it can be the video meetings. Here are some tips to help you get through them.
1. Know your limitations and help others to know them too
If you are just not feeling camera-ready, turn off your camera. Simple as that. If your boss requires that everyone have their camera on, be prepared to explain yourself. Maybe you just slept poorly the night before or maybe it’s so hot outside that you’re not dressed for work. Whatever the reason, learn to lean into them and help others to see that this is a healthy way to do remote work.
If you’re hungry, eat but try to be respectful about it. Yeah, it’s rude to eat in meetings but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
2. Ditch the headset if you can
If you are alone at home, take off the headset and get a decent microphone and speakers for your computer instead. Long-term headphone use can lead to hearing loss and headaches. This is especially true if your company has relied on inexpensive headsets because they thought this would all be over soon.
3. Cute background? So over it
Cute backgrounds are sooooo 2020. If your home office is a mess, blur your background. Otherwise just let people know where you are and they can learn to live with it. Yes, the animals or kids will peek in now and again, but that’s part of the fun of remote work. When you unexpectedly fade into the background, it stops people from paying attention to what you’re saying.
4. Upgrade the camera situation
In the beginning of the pandemic, webcams were hard to come by. Now they are everywhere. Get a decent HD camera and possibly even a ring light if you need one. A lot of folks have found that Teams makes the camera too dark by default. That’s why this tutorial is one of the most popular articles on this blog. The latest version of Teams fixes this somewhat, but you have to manually do it. To improve the camera in teams, click on the three dots next to your picture at the top right of the Teams window. Go to Settings, then Devices. Scroll down to “camera” and there are two new settings: Make sure “Automatically adjust camera controls” is checked, and “Adjust brightness” is on.
5. Take video calls outside of your home office if you can
Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, FaceTime, and Skype all have mobile apps. So why not take that meeting from a park or even the back porch? As long as you’re not talking about confidential stuff, you should have the right to take that meeting anywhere you like. If your boss disapproves, ask them why? It’s perfectly possible to be just as productive from your phone.
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