Online meeting etiquette

[daisypetula]

Is it acceptable to mute the Mike of a participant without telling them and to do it again when they unmute the Mike to say something?

No noise was coming from their Mike at all, no tv or background music or children etc.

Was everyone's mike muted at this point or just one person?

@MichelleScarn

Was everyone's mike muted at this point or just one person?

I've got no way of knowing that but other people did talk during that time

I don't think it is ever ok to mute the mike of a participant without telling them. Certainly not how team I'm on operate.

Even if there is background noise coming from someone who hasn't realised they are making a noise, whomever mutes them needs to tell them. This happened to a colleague last week, thought that they were on mute but weren't and their coffee machine was distracting us.

I'm guessing you were not the one doing the muting?

Poor Mike. What did he do?

Your post is too vague.

It's fine for the Chair or meeting organiser to 'mute all', other than the current speaker, but they should advise all participants they are doing it.

Equally, reminding everyone to mute when they are not speaking is fine.

Repeatedly using the mute function to stop someone speaking (is that what you are saying?) is not fine.

I do it if I've made it clear to everyone in advance that they need to stay on mute unless invited to speak (I often deal with sensitive/ legal type stuff). I have done it on occasion if someone is struggling with tech and has loads of feedback noise.

Wouldn't do it in a normal meeting, or in a group of friends but I tend to think that the right etiquette is to keep oneself muted anyway in a meeting. Even if you think there's no background noise, there always is.

I've muted other people before, but only when 1) they were struggling to mute themselves/ everyone had been asked at least once to mute themselves or 2) they had started having another conversation apparently without realising they were audible on our call.

Ive been on lots of calls where the host mutes all participants except the presenter. They normally tell everyone that's what they're going to do.

they had started having another conversation apparently without realising they were audible on our call

This is the only time I've muted somebody without warning them first; I do get the fun of muting all participants in large meetings once they've been told to do it themselves (and haven't).

Usually the host will say something like “I’m going to mute everyone. If you want to speak please write in the comments/questions section or indicate you’d like to speak. We’ll go through the questions at the end.”

It completely depends on the type of meeting though. Sometimes it’s not appropriate to have people interrupting the main speaker.

It's hard to say but probably not ok.

It’s good online meeting etiquette to be on mute at all times when you’re not speaking. A lot of people aren’t aware of the background noise or echos they’re creating when they’re not on mute.

It completely depends on the type of meeting though. Sometimes it’s not appropriate to have people interrupting the main speaker.
Op do you know if there was a reason why your mike was muted?

It depends. I have done it, after asking several times for everyone not speaking to mute and some people not muting.

Having everyone except the speaker muted massively improves sound because the programme isn't trying to work out where the noise is coming from. It's really frustrating being on a call where the "live" window keeps flicking to someone who's heavy breathing while the person who's meant to be speaking gets cut out.

If someone was preventing me from contributing then I'd send a Chat message to everyone to tell them, but then I have no shame...

Out and proud - I've done it. I've got a colleague who works across two systems so she doesn't always realise that while she's away on the other system everyone can hear her partner in the background. I reckon it's a kindness.

I've also done it when we've all been asked to mute and a colleague hasn't so it's started a feedback wail. Otherwise the person speaking isn't just functionality interrupted but also has to stop, do the "please mute" chat and then restart, which is so horrible when you're just trying to get through a presentation. Given that they think they're on mute (and have been told to be) I reckon it's polite for the speaker.

Wouldn't do it too shut up annoying colleague but have been sorely tempted.