Working from Home Annoyance

[ThirtyThreeTrees]

Anyone else getting fed up on an endless amount of calls or teams meetings where people having dogs barking, watching machines going or children screaming in the background?

I think WFH is great but it's not a substitute for childcare and you show be accessible during contracted hours as you are in the office without the noise level.

If I hear "can everyone please go on mute" or "there appears to be interruption on the call" one more time.

It's worse if someone is in the office tbh. Way more noise then.

My dog occasionally woofs if a call coincides with a delivery but other than that WFH FTW!

I mute people if they didn't mute themselves.

But all my colleagues do mute when not speaking.

I don’t just think it’s when people are working at home. People on calls in open plan offices when they’re not using headsets and you can hear all the office chatting and laughing. Had one the other week where someone else in the office had the radio on! I don’t hesitate to mute them now.

I’m on calls a lot. We occasionally get dogs, but then everyone stops to say hello to the dog and then we carry on 😂

everything else is pretty professional tbh, with no issues like you describe.

I haven't encountered any of these noises since lockdown.

Yes the most noise/disruption on our calls also comes from those who are in the office! Everyone should be on mute unless they're talking anyway.

I don't really get this when in meetings with school staff but they can't help schools being noisy. They can mute their mics though!

Mine is family who don't correlate working from home, as working, so they think I'm available for them to pop in for a cuppa.

I get much more peace on WFH days than in the office.
I don't mind a dog barking or the door going.
We're all pretty accepting of some background noise but make sure we're locked away for formal meetings.
Now we're all using Teams etc much more for meetings we'd all need to go back to small individual offices because open plan doesn't work at all.

I can ALWAYS, without exception hear people better who are WFH rather than in the office surrounded by other people on calls at the same time.

Is this a Daily Mail thread?

Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts both have very effective settings which filter out non-speaking noise. I know because my washing machine sounds like a jet plane taking off in my office and when I've apologised for it no one has ever said they could hear it. My colleagues have also occasionally apologised for non-audible noise.

Just do it over email if you're so grouchy about it.

Our zoom meetings always start with everyone muted by default. Sounds like it's some issue with the way your company does things.

We also almost never use video, except sometimes if there's a presentation - the screen is used for useful information, demos etc.

noise in the office is the worst.

I've only had it twice - once with a colleague who let his young child chat whilst he was talking to me and I had to ask him to repeat everything, and once with a colleague whose dog is a persistent barker. Every few minutes you would hear her shout at the dog to be quiet.

No, it's not a Daily Mail thread. It's my curiosity.

It's more on a one to one zoom or smaller calls. Everyone muted on the larger calls.

I'm very surprised that no one else feels do people are using WFH as childcare substitution. As as for the stopping to say hello to the dog, it's suppose to a professional working environment.

I think it’s very unprofessional.

But sometimes it’s just Sod’s law that as soon as you get on the meeting someone knocks on the door and the dogs start barking.

I do think people should turn washing machines etc off and shouldn’t have young children in the background.

Lockdown was different as most people didn’t have a choice but to work from home and didn’t have a quiet room or childcare but now people are choosing to wfh and so it should be as professional as an office space.

What annoys me is when I’m at work in our tiny office (6ft x 4ft) making an important phone call and someone comes in and makes one at the exact same time that could have waited until I was done 😡

I find the office far far worse tbh.

I couldn't believe how disruptive office life is when I went back to it after lockdowns. Couldn't really understood how I'd dealt with it before. Hard to work from one end of the office to the other without getting roped into gossip, chat and pointless conversations. Constant interruptions by people with stuff that really doesn't merit a conversation.

Don't get me wrong I don't mind this and I enjoy the social element but it's incredibly inefficient.

An occasional dog barking on someone's Teams I couldn't get excited about.

That's not what I've experienced, it's not lockdown so everything is much more professional, kids are in school / daycare, most people have their own space and no interruptions.

What is bloody annoying is background noise when people are in the office or even more annoying being in the office with someone being a teams call without a headset.

Oh and it isn't. Our contracts that if you are wfh you have suitable childcare arrangements in place.

I'm very surprised that no one else feels do people are using WFH as childcare substitution. As as for the stopping to say hello to the dog, it's suppose to a professional working environment.

We behave professionally, of course we don't have kids running around now. (It was pretty minimal during lockdowns, when there was no alternative) . There might be a bit of social pleasantry (which could include dog appreciation) with colleagues you don't talk to routinely - similar to IRL really.

Most of my team have remote working contracts, no issues with children as they're in childcare as they would be if they were based in an office.

Teams does normally filter out background noise effectively. It really doesn't work for barking dogs - I dread meetings with the owner of a particularly barky dog. I don't find office calls much worse in terms of background noise as long as people use the proper headsets. The in ear headphones that come with mobile phones are hopeless though - one of my colleagues uses these and wfh in a room with her DH, I reckon I hear more of him than her on a call!

Yeah I actually find office staff worse for background noise if they don’t move to a private room. Nothing worse than hearing the background noise of another call clearly when someone hasn’t muted.

I recall some of these issues from Covid times, but they aren't associated with current WFH in my opinion. If your colleagues can't work in a suitable environment at home they shouldn't be there.

Agree with PPs that nowadays it's worse when there are people in a noisy office.