So...video conferencing, home working, your house and your colleague's houses

[chomalungma]

Interesting seeing colleagues' houses at the moment - you hear about them but interesting to see them properly.

Plus all the background chat, occasional family interruptions etc

I have tidied up a bit more!

How have people found video conferencing with colleagues?

I put some pictures up on the wall behind me after looking at my blank wall on Teams. No one commented. A couple of colleagues change rooms in their houses, that provides some entertainment. I love the husbands bringing cups of tea; my DH complains I don't do my share of the tea runs, but I don't get the chance to be thirsty, I'm drowning in it. I wonder if he actually does any work. We even had a teenage door slam in one of team meetings.

I've left my video off, mainly cos my house is a mess and is a complete pile of crap compared to everyone else's. Quite a few colleagues are 2 working adults with no kids and I'm a single parent. If I ever get tidied up, I might put it on.

I do have one colleague who clearly has an office and the paint colour is lovely so I mentioned that. Another has an interesting picture in the background but I haven't plucked up the courage to ask about it yet

Kept camera off. Otherwise I might pull faces at some of the nonsense I hear.

I never have my camera switched on.

I like my home life and my corporate work life to be separate.

My broadband is struggling with audio (no fibre anywhere round here)...so no video here.

I didn't wash my hair for 4 days but then Boss asked for a conf call so had to shower. Bloody new technology

I don't have to cope with the horror of video conferences but I'm enjoying nosing at people's houses when they're being interviewed on the news - it's nice seeing eminent scientists in their kitchens rather than the usual lab/office bookshelf in the background.

We did have to do a video call with DS's sports coach the other day though that was mostly her asking to see our dog and trying to get him to say hello to her :)

DH was on a call last week and I forgot - got out of the shower andvwalked into the room wearing only a towel. DH didn't hear me as he had headphones on and luckily I glanced at his screen. If I hadn't I would have given about 9 of his colleagues an eyeful! So embarrassing.

We had a whole staff meeting this morning and as we were all just getting in and settled one colleague's husband walked across a door way completely naked :D she was away from her desk and he evidently hadn't realised her webcam was on!

I use a plain wall for background

I did a lecture in my pyjamas the other day which was nice. I’ve been giving a lot of lectures to dogs and toddlers it seems.

I convinced DH to use a postcard of Delaware as background for his first Zoom call. Luckily all his colleagues got the reference 😂

I’d planned to use it myself but all calls have been cancelled so couldn’t waste it.

We are on a number of calls a day with multiple people so usually audio only.
I have 121s soon and they will be video as I do find it difficult to concentrate!

I'm so judgemental. I was pretty happy to see my bosses, bosses house is way worse than mine and her kid (same age as my oldest) is a nightmare when she is on calls.

I've discovered that in my head I am not a nice person.

I've only had to do one video call so far which was with my boss. We've been friends for years so he was on his sofa, I was on mine. He got interrupted by his daughter (who I've met before) so we had a little chat too.
My team are a friendly bunch so our upcoming team video meeting will be relaxed but I will absolutely be staging it so I'm in my very clean dining room with great lighting and the laptop raised on books to avoid having a million chins

DH has a video call earlier today. He told me it was at 3 but it wasn't, it was at 2:15 so I interrupted it Luckily I was dressed nicely today but I started talking before I entered the room so the first time some of his colleagues 'met' me was hearing me moan that he hadn't emptied the dishwasher. It could have been a lot worse (and he was ordered to do the dishwasher straight after the call by his manager)

No ones interested in kids. Just had to nod politely through one while thinking TELL THEM TO FICK OFF

I'm good enough friends with my colleagues that I don't mind them seeing my bedroom. I'd already warned them that it's the only quiet place in the house for calls.

Just mute your thing unless you’re talking. Then no one can hear anyone