On line meetings. Fake backgrounds.

[UnfunnyJester]

Do most people show their real backgrounds or fake ones for online meetings?

Yes true. Though sometimes, for a change, I sit at my kitchen table. You can tell I'm in a kitchen. Surely the point is that I'm getting good work done, not where I'm doing it from!

I just blur the room or office I'm in for family and colleagues privacy. Nothing to hide but it's either my not quite perfect lounge or our work room with all my sewing stuff on the other side. In 2020 when it started I had everything behind all neatly styled but CBA any more. I wouldn't say I'm distracted by the occasional flickering or people behind, spent so many hours in Teams meetings I hardly notice any more.

Not sure what I think to the avatars though! I would feel replaced by a bland looking robot.

I have a real background is a wall and a painting.

Always Real. I don't video call from the sofa though I routinely work on it, but my dining table or office (the two other places i work) are both fair game.

I really don't like the distortion that happens with the fake/branded/blur backgrounds. I don't care what's in your background but I want to engage with someone that always looks like a human and not a hologram or something when they move.

I never have to do external calls - I can see in some companies it's needed to keep a professional image. But internally - just let me have a normal camera view pleeeease!

@OnionBhajis no, I'm not – but I am a specialist in an area that clients sometimes feel vulnerable about, and I work with companies who rely on me to be good at what I do!

I'm lucky enough to have a home office, so I tried to set up my background in the same way as I would if people were walking into my actual office.

I have no real issue with anything people have in their backgrounds – I'd be happy to see people's messy kitchen tables as much as formal offices... but again, I'm lucky enough to work in an area where openness and humanity are valued and appreciated, so it's all the same to me.

A fake one of a very nice home office, I don’t feel all my colleagues should be able to see in my home, I work all over the house, where I feel like at that moment, and I do think everyone should have a false background for privacy. Honestly hate seeing someone’s bed, or their messy/scruffy box room. Use a fake background for goodness sake.

We don't have corporate backgrounds at my workplace. I blur 90% of the time, I'll put a fake background on otherwise.

It's my home. I feel uncomfortable with my colleagues somehow being in my home.

I always find it a bit weird when someone just has their home in the background. I don't care about your books or record collection. Just blur FFS

I used a fake one for the first time last week. My usual corner was darker than usual, and the other side of the table was by a very untidy bookcase. I didn’t have time to tidy up, so I put on a zen-like office/house background.

Arguably, insisting on fake backgrounds is an egalitarian solution ...

Blurred

Real. I work from my study so I have a bookshelf behind me, some large paintings and a globe. All looks v professional. I like seeing my lovely study on the screen, makes me smile.

A fake one, of a nice calm painted wall with a couple of plants in front of it.

I don't particularly want people peering at any family photos, let alone any piles of things I might have on the bed.

Fake because DH ‘office’ is our living room and I’m forever moving in the background.

we have branded ones, but i use my actual background whether at home or not. just make sure when i'm at home o don't have anything embarrassing in the background, like underwear or the like drying on the clothes drier behind me 🤣

Mixed. Last week it was a view of a very untidy craft storage area. Blinking kids!

Real, but it's just a plain wall.

W have branded ones but they're boring. I downloaded some from the beeb at the start of lockdown so sometimes I'm in the queen Vic, sometimes in the strictly studio, sometimes in a Danish show, sometimes at Legoland with the Lego version of our city.

Depends who my meeting is with.

I use a corporate background for external, or fake, blurred or actual depending on where I am in the house.

Real but blurred, fake ones look distorted sometimes and chop your hair off or make your head disappear

Colleague have fake rooms and a lot of the time are the same as each other. Makes me laugh thinking they are all in the same New York penthouse apartment