A friend accused me of being snoopy during Zoom/Teams meetings

[IknowIch]

I am long-term MN NC user.
English second language.

So to get on with it, I expressed to a friend I judge colleagues' background (e.g. type of wall paper, paint colour, decor, etc) during Zoom/Teams meetings, such as a laptop not on a desk or senior staff members with no home libraries or dedicated workspace.

Am I the only one who snoops into other's houses during meetings?

@SmileyClare

I was taken aback- one colleague had light pink paint on their walls

What? Taken aback? That is the most absurd reaction to a pastel wall paint.

I dread to think what else their delicate sensitivities would be offended by.

How horrible.

I dont have a home office/library as I choose to give each dd their own room. Maybe I should make them share and set up a full office so my colleagues dont judge me!

Sometimes I work from the kitchen to be able to grab a drink/food as work is so busy i dont get a chance.

I recently had a teams job interview with 30+ houseplants in the background. They must have thought I was mad or living in a jungle. I moved trinkets and other silly things out of the way but the plants were too much work.

I got the job anyway though.

Now I know why many of my colleagues have fake backgrounds! I am reasonably snr but don't have a dedicated work space. I work in living room, DH in kitchen, ds in dining room and dd in her bedroom.

We don't have one study let alone 4 of them.

I like to look at my colleagues wall paper etc but don't judge (and I'm a very judgy person!)

[quote Stovetopespresso]@Confusedandshaken totally agree.

i think op was talking about senior roles. does that make a difference though...

i have felt quite sorry for some senior managers whose rooms look really unloved and tatty, hooefully not snooping just when they say how uncomfortable or cold they are etc. its like they just live for their jobs and work all the hours possible.

but maybe that's their choice or there's a whole lot of things going on that's none of my businness[/quote]
Dh does have a dedicated work space but it is a scruffy mess as we had been planning on getting the external walls replastered, last summer, and the useless little radiator replaced with something more attractive and big enough for the room. Obviously, that didn't happen do the room is scruffy and rather cold.

I judge them if they don't have a butler.

The only colleague whose background I’ve taken much notice of is one who lives in a beautiful old house full of antique furniture. And even she is working from her living room, not a home library!

We do have a spare room/home office, but DP has to do a lot of confidential calls so I teach from the kitchen. When we bought our house, we didn’t know a pandemic was on the cards!

I judge colleagues' background (e.g. type of wall paper, paint colour, decor, etc) during Zoom/Teams meetings

YABU and your friend is probably right.

But you know, judge away - I do have a library room in my home (books are fantastic insulation too!)

@garlicwhorl

wtf has a home library

Me. Most of our books live in one room, which is also where the home PC is. Sadly my book collection (hoard) has grown, and we now have 6 bookcases in the library, two in the dining room, one in dh’s office and one more upstairs.

Would you judge the person wfh in this room? Toilet in the background!
(Found on Rightmove)

Image 7 of 11
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-77811831.html

@ktp100

I judge them if they don't have a butler.

The "butler" occasionally drops tea off in our house during calls, they creep in very carefully and quietly. We don't have an office either so DH has been working in our bedroom, one child in the kitchen and two in the dining room.

I don't snoop. Things might naturally catch my attention but l don't purposefully look. I certainly wouldn't start making judgements as a result.

-I judge unprepared or appearing "ambushed" colleagues during meetings. We all have children, cleaning, etc, but at least pretend to be ready for work.

We don't all have dedicated rooms we can close ourselves into for the hundredth meeting good the day.

*of the day

I am trying to picture what a frilly pink wall would consist of. Labia, maybe?

I'd snoop but I wouldn't judge. People use the place where they live according to what they can afford and what they need. Some places are very expensive to buy property in.

There's a company doing really well during covid. They supply bookcases filled with any type of book to give off a certain air/vibe during zoom calls. Usually used on film sets etc.

I wondered who would hire them, maybe people who you do zoom calls with should take a look to go up in your estimations

Does a home library include my daughters peppa pig books 😂. I work off my dining room table.. I really couldn't care less about other people's backgrounds.

I think most probably take at least a peek at what's in the background, but unless it's a horrible mess or the house seems to falling down around them, I'd try not to judge.

Who cares if they don't have a home office or a beautiful bookcase in the background? So what if they don't want to sit at a desk all day, as long as they can do the job from the sofa, kitchen table, etc.?

@manyhorror

There's a company doing really well during covid. They supply bookcases filled with any type of book to give off a certain air/vibe during zoom calls. Usually used on film sets etc.

I wondered who would hire them, maybe people who you do zoom calls with should take a look to go up in your estimations

Ooh I could do this!

No need to be heaving bookcases about - I'd just Blu tac a roll of wallpaper that has a library/books pattern behind the client. If there is stuff in the way like laundry or random DC I'd drap it over that too, to add depth and to make it look like they have even more books. Charge £200 a pop. None of you better go stealing my idea

I judge people who name change just to write a pointless post

Pfft. I am quite senior in my organisation - we employ several hundred people and I am probably within the top 15ish people within the organisation - but we also have 3 small children and have been paying c. £1.5-2k nursery fees every month since 2015. Also DH is at home with the children half the week and earns below national avg.

So we live in a 3 bed semi and there is no office space. In Lockdown 1 I worked in an armchair in the bedroom and co-led my institution's covid response project from that chair.

Who cares? I delivered and if anyone feels judgy, they can pay for me to build an extension!

The people I feel sorry for are the many, many young people living in flat or house shares who have to work and sleep in one small room. A lot of DS's colleagues are in this position. They come to London on secondment to experience life in the big city and advance their careers. They've ended up confined to tiny bedsits or flat shares, unable to experience the culture they came here for, never meeting their colleagues IRL and unable to travel back to their home cities or countries. I would be very sad to think that they were also be judged by supercilious colleagues for their living situations.

Absolutely. I know some of these people. Highly qualified and competent professionals in very good jobs, who the OP would sneer at for not having a home office, when they don't have any space of their own other than their bedroom.

Many of us do not have a home office as

1. We can't afford it

2 no spare rooms 3 we never bloody needed one as had no intention to work from home My dh has a desk in our bedroom, not ideal but you know his wages feed the kids , so if one of his colleagues feels the need to judge , I think that says more about them than us