AIBU to dislike Microsoft Teams blurred backgrounds?

[TulipsTwoLips]

AIBU to dislike Teams backgrounds? I really struggle to process faces in focus but backgrounds blurred 😢. Does anyone else find this? I find it really stressful.

I rely on that feature! YABU

It's not often used at my work. Most people just have a blank wall behind them or something neutral.but then it's the kind of work where no one cares if a child/cat walks in

Why should my colleagues see my home?

@TulipsTwoLips this has been raised as an issue for neurodiverse people. You can opt to “stop incoming video” and then it won’t be on screen, option available through the three dots. We can ask each other to turn off though.

I like them. Means I don’t have to tidy the office / back bedroom every time I go on a call.

I have ADHD and find them really distracting and horrible too.

There's always some unintended consequence for people who don't fit the normie norm with tools to 'make life easier'.

I agree. I don't gave any background on ever. Behind me is a bookcase which I can't see any issue with being seen.

I think if you have an accessibility requirement and it’s making it difficult for you to process facial signals it’s ok to drop a note to the meeting organiser requesting that people don’t blur backgrounds. They might not agree, but it could help.

I love the blurred background, as I'm crammed into a corner of the spare room, generally with an airer full of drying washing behind me. No one needs to see that. Really. Fortunately I work on a software development team so if it's just the team we're generally happy to keep cameras off.

I hate it op, mostly because people then try to show me stuff on the camera and it's all blurred out. Internal calls with basically mates at this point, I've see your house dude, take the blur off!

You don't have to use the blur - I'm NHS so we have to use a standardised corporate background for formal meetings, but for informal ones we tend to use a range of images. You can customise them. I have some nice floral ones and some English landscapes (taken by me) and I also have the bridge of the Enterprise and a couple of Imperial battle cruisers if I'm having a bad day. Oh, and a herd of giraffes.

I’m one of a tiny handful at my work who doesn’t have a blurred background. Because I have a study to work in.

But I’m lucky to have that - of course people need to blur the background.

If you know the people you’re on the call with you could always ask them to change to one of the other backgrounds for the duration of the call ? All they probably care about is people not seeing their house and the blurred background is probably the most neutral, but there are a couple with a plain wall which would work just as well although you’d still get a slight ‘halo.

@AbigailRocketBlast

I love it when they have a mountain view, book case background, whatever and their door bell rings, they get up to answer and just disappear into the abyss, freaked me out first time I saw it :)

People just get up in a meeting to answer the door?!

When the kids were off school during lockdowns the school wrote an email to use explicitly requesting they use the blurred background during lessons for safeguarding reasons. Of course the kids got creative and put their own backgrounds up..

I hear you OP. I find the blurred backgrounds far more distracting and detrimental to my concentration than anything that might be in the background (unless it was something absolutely mental). And don’t get me started on the fake backgrounds. They are so distracting and they look fucking ridiculous.

Not everyone has a dedicated workspace and everyone deserves to keep their home private if they want to. So no, I’m not going to unblur my washing drying behind me, because I’d really rather my colleagues didn’t have to look at my knickers and bras hanging on the airer. YABU.

I'm ND and love blurred background. I used to get panicked before meetings. I couldn't concentrate during them as I was stressed about my house. Being able to blur the background is massively important.

@PAFMO

Are you new to online meetings? All of them have the blurred background functionality and most workplaces encourage people to use them for privacy reasons.

Do most workplaces encourage you to use a blurred background? How do you know? Mine doesn’t.

It’s a bit odd when people move but it’s not that bad. I use it sometimes but try not to as nothing much wrong with the wall behind me

@D0lphine

Why should my colleagues see my home?

I don't know, why should colleagues see your home?

[quote BakeOffRewatch]@TulipsTwoLips this has been raised as an issue for neurodiverse people. You can opt to “stop incoming video” and then it won’t be on screen, option available through the three dots. We can ask each other to turn off though.[/quote]
This sounds perfect. You are a star! Thank you!

I don't have this issue as I never use my camera.

Audio only, thank you very much.

How’s it going @TulipsTwoLips? If you have to watch content you can also “Focus on content” so it only shows the screen share.

The only annoying thing is you can’t tell who is speaking it doesn’t show the name, I think I’ll need to raise that as feedback. It is definitely worth feeding back to Microsoft they have a huge disability and access effort, and MS Teams is so so different to what it was at the beginning of the pandemic already. Those “stop incoming video. And “focus on content weren’t there before. www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility

That’s really useful, thank you