January 31, 2022 at 12:00 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Making Video Chat Better
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January 31, 2022 at 1:24 am
It doesn't matter if it's ZOOM or not... meeting usually flat out just suck because the person who is supposed to be running the meeting is one of the worst offenders of poor meeting etiquette themselves. A lot of meetings are no better than trying to discuss something at a bar. There's a half dozen different topics being discussed in one manner or other, the idiots that brought their laptops with them that don't pay attention and always say "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening, can you repeat that?" meaning that they missed the entire last half hour because they went to do something else on their computer instead of paying attention.
Actually, I don't blame them for not paying attention because there's usually no one that can keep the meeting focused. This is especially true in IT meetings.
I try to remind people to pay attention and that "focus" has an "o" rather than 2 "u"s in it. 😀
--Jeff Moden
January 31, 2022 at 1:28 pm
I noticed that during 2021 the number of meetings I had to attend increased dramatically. I don't have the hard facts, but intuitively I know it's gone up a lot. We use a time tracking system developed in-house, but you can't query against it for the simple reason that as much as I ask where the database is, no one will tell me. And the time tracker app doesn't have any built-in functionality give totals on categories. (I'm sure upper management gets such results, but for whatever reason that is denied to the regular worker.) So, just last week I've decided to start tracking the hours I'm in meetings for myself. (I wish I'd done this a year ago.) And I'll report this in my weekly status report. I think it's going to show I'm in meetings 10 to 15 hours or more a week, which makes getting the tasks assigned to me difficult. I like your idea, Steve, of trying to minimize the meetings you attend. Unfortunately, all the meetings I attend are categorized as mandatory for me to attend, which is false, but that doesn't matter.
Rod
January 31, 2022 at 3:26 pm
It doesn't matter if it's ZOOM or not... meeting usually flat out just suck because the person who is supposed to be running the meeting is one of the worst offenders of poor meeting etiquette themselves.
I don't have that issue. We actually do a good job at Redgate in most meetings. A little chit chat at the beginning, and some people struggle to end meetings, but overall, we are on point and look to end early when possible.
I think poor meeting issues are always there, and they should be addressed with some training and review. unfortunately, most managers are people that never got trained, never think to train others, and so we keep a cycle going.
It's the format for me that makes it worse. Good meetings are harder on me, and bad meetings and barely tolerable. Talk about a hard context switch.
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February 2, 2022 at 2:02 am
...so I work to minimize video, type more, ...
While I haven't had all the experiences with video meetings that you mention, I'd rather have a "meeting" with just one or two people than to try and type everything I need to say. There is obviously an appropriate usage for each technology and I, as a developer, find it most effective to call someone, using a headset and microphone, not the laptop speakers and mic, and immediately share my desktop screen and grant the other person remote control so they can move their mouse cursor on my screen to point things out as they talk. This makes the need to see each other in video or something worthless, which is fine. As for typing, when we need to share a snippet of code or a link to a web site or something, then we can copy and paste it into the chat window. But no need to type out the logic and reasoning behind the code. Just call. How is that any different than when we worked in the office and would walk to each other's cubicles to discuss something. While I feel like I and some co-workers can type rather quickly, 60+ WPM, I can still talk a lot faster and get my point across a lot easier than trying to type.
Of the 30+ people I work with directly on my team, none of us use video, which is fine by me.
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