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 am with you OP. I hate talking to people who have the blurred background on. The dodgy edges where they move is incredibly irritating. I wish they would improve it somehow because I understand why people use it, it's just awful for those on the receiving end. To me the privacy thing is a bit of a weak argument though, as it doesn't take much to clear the small section of room behind you, especially if you are working there for the majority of the time.

I use stop incoming video a lot, partly to save on bandwidth and partly because I struggle with the lack of body language in combination with voice. Voice alone is fine, and in person is fine, but my brain doesn't like multiple different feeds and voices.

Maybe me being weird, I leave my video in but don't watch anyone elses.

I like seeing people's real houses. I started my job during corona and a lot of the people I have never met in person... it humanises them a bit when you can see their cat or their kids' drawings behind them.

One of my colleagues has a background of the lab he works in, but photoshopped to add lots of broken glass and needles and spilled chemicals and I can hardly look at anything else when he's on a call, it's so disturbing!

I understand why people use them, but I find them distracting too. I end up spending most of my time looking that all the bits that appear or disappear every time they move! I don’t bother as I don’t really care if people see my house. I don’t have washing or a bed behind me though, I would probably feel differently if I did.

I don't use them as it forces me to tidy up.

It makes me nauseous, especially if parts of the person are also blurring and unblurring. Virtual backgrounds not quite so bad for some reason.

I ask people to turn it off if it's 1:1, noone has ever not obliged. No need for the patronising tone of some of the replies.

I don't like it either, it makes me feel slightly dizzy. I try not to look at the edges iyswim.

We have had guidance to avoid using blurred background for diversity and inclusion reasons.
I have experimented with the camera height and angle to get mostly ceiling and top of the wall view in shot behind me.

@Ionlydomassiveones

I just hate Teams full stop. It’s crap compared to Zoom. The blur feature is a god send though for those of us with piles of washing in the background rather than nicely curated bookshelves.

In what way? I use Teams for work and Zoom for online Pilates classes. The picture quality is the same. I can't say whether the sound quality is better with either because we use headsets for Teams meetings.

Teams looks rubbish blurred or with a non real background.

But I'm in our spare bedroom that hasn't been decorated since the place was built 20 odd years ago and for added loveliness DS old New York skyline in the background, sometimes I have laundry drying in the room as well. So unless it's close colleagues, then I have to change the background.

I hate it. Esp when you stand next to someone to say hi and you flicker on and off screen.

But that’s why my teams shows im offline. I dont use it. I use the phone.

But @MrsDThomas that means your poor colleagues have to be available to be contacted on more than one mechanism. I hated it wfh before Teams was all we used. Sometimes I'd be getting messages, calls and urgent emails simultaneously, I couldn't process it.
Can't you just use Audio on Teams ?

Nothing worse then listening to other peoples conversations. Prefer the telephone method.

You are not required to stare at the screen the whole time right..? Just put a cat picture on your screen. Problem solved ;)

If you want to see their faces but without the blur, change to 'together mode'
Looks like everyone is sitting in a lecture theatre. No blur.

Blurred backgrounds set off my migraines but fake picture backgrounds are usually fine. I used to like seeing people's houses but I'm over that now and use a fake background myself as well. I use pictures of nice places I've been to, or lovely corners of my garden as a fake background which improves the whole experience.

I also find it quite annoying (and sometimes migraine triggering) when people sit half out of shot. Looking at only the left of someone's face is an instant migraine aura. Having them all skew-whiff hanging out of the bottom of the shot is always tiring to look at but only gives me a migraine on a bad day. It's fine if we are screen sharing and looking all over but on a face to face chat ffs why don't you fix it??

This is interesting, I am also ND and dislike the blurred background

I don't have a work phone anymore and I keep my personal phone downstairs. If anyone wants to talk to me they do it on Teams or not at all. It's not 2010 and I'm not required or capable of doing 3 things at once.

Is it difficult for you with other background types too? If so, you could explain to your manager and close colleagues that you struggle to process with the blur so please would they use the one with the mirror and plant instead. That wouldn't help for other people you meet where it's inappropriate to ask, but would at least sort out the problem for people in your team.

@Marvellousmadness

You are not required to stare at the screen the whole time right..? Just put a cat picture on your screen. Problem solved ;)

I kinda am - I lipread!