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.

In covid when it was sudden wfh etc, it was generally acceptable.

Now it is not unless it's one offs, or in certain scenarios where it can't be helped. If you're wfh now it should be in a professional environment at home.

Nope. Maybe I'm just lucky to have considerate colleagues, but this hasn't been my experience at all, bar during the first lockdown. But as others have said, that was where everyone was getting used to wfh and some of us were trying to work full time and homeschool fulltime, in environments that weren't set up for it.

I agree the most disruption on my work calls is other people in offices. Special mention to the bloke who was bellowing so loud in one office that he was drowning out a colleague who was using a headset ffs. No idea how he managed that.

Also people who forget to mute themselves on massive briefings and then answer the phone or talk to someone nearby.

Same here. Kids are back in school or at childcare and most people have learned online etiquette.

Teams meetings are worse when people are in the office due to background chatter, I would say the odd dog bark or child interruption is very rare and has been since covid lockdowns were over.

I haven't seen or heard a child on a work call for months now.

s barking can be a bit annoying, I guess but people just deal with them and that's fine. It seems sod's law that they start the second a meeting that.

I do hate hybrid meetings where half the people are in the room and half not. The people in the room forget and you can't tell who's talking.

My kids are in in the mornings and school holidays. But never would they interrupt me on a call. They didn't in lockdown though either. People with young young kids should have childcare in place surely?

I agree. I declined to work from home when asked to. As an employee it was hugely impractical and an intrusion
As a customer its irritating for all of the reasons you mentioned. I also have serious governs around confidentiality.
It has its place but should not be a replacement for F2F working. I think hybrid is the way to go for many roles.

I was going to say this too. I had a meeting yesterday (1-1) where the other person was in their office and apologised for the fire alarm going off! I couldn't even hear it on my end!

My cat likes to join meetings but she doesn't make any noise, just jumps over my shoulder then sits on my lap. People usually seem happy to see her!

I do find though that if you mute dialogue is unnatural.

As as for the stopping to say hello to the dog, it's suppose to a professional working environment.

Honestly one of the things I like about the new world we live in post COVID is that we've lost some of the fetishization of "professionalism". I thought some of the emphasis on this in the pre-COVID era was ridiculous.

If professionalism means timeliness, efficiency, respect for colleagues and appropriate behaviour I'm completely down with that but in the old days there seemed to be this idea that being professional means erasing any evidence that you have any kind of existence outside of the office.

Having kids sitting on their parents knees bawling throughout a meeting is obviously a step too far but I can't understand how evidence that you have a life outside the office is "unprofessional".

I always thought that idea was ridiculous and I'm glad we're more relaxed about it now.

I think random noises are really annoying when you're wearing headphones/earphones, but on speaker I'm fine to just chill out and sit back

I meant random background noises, including technical "noise" (eg from a staticky microphone even if someone's environment is quiet)

I used to work in a call centre and it was like being in a boiling cauldron of chattering primary school kids… the constant yammering of others taking calls, talking over the tops of each other and then people walking beside the desks shouting over your head. Awful! Guaranteed to give anyone industrial deafness. WFH is a much better way of life. Admittedly I’m studying f/t now (from home) and my supervisor doesn’t bark very often or shove her face or bum on screen, but it’s nice to hang out with her at home while I’m “in class”. (My kids are all late teens and very independent. They know better than to interrupt when the dog and I are “at school.”)

People with young young kids should have childcare in place surely?

Pretty much. If I'm doing a meeting very early or very late as a favour to a colleague, then occasionally I'll have a toddler sidekick. But I'll tell them in advance so they can decide how badly they need the favour. Other than that, she's at nursery.

I have not encountered any of those situations you have mentioned in the year I’ve been in my current WFH role with a team who all predominantly WFH

I hybrid work now, one or two days in the office and can't believe how much noisier it is than when I'm WFH!

People talking loudly, workmen hammering in other rooms, folks watching things with audio without a headset. A few months ago, whilst in a call, I lifted out of my seat as far as my headset wire would allow to see what the loud noise was outside- to find a bloke with a bloody leafblower directly eyeballing me with a gleeful look on his face 😂

Are you including everyone who WFH in your sweeping generalisation that we use it for childcare?

I guess it depends on how strict workplaces are. Mine wouldn't tolerate WFH in lieu of childcare. I couldn't do my job with my child around!

Of course there are exceptions, child off sick or snow day etc. but they are rare events.

I was on a telephone call with someone at HMRC the other week. Mid-way through the call there was a "Muuuuum, can I have a...." swiftly followed by a silence which could only indicate a mother gesticulating wildly at her phone to shut the child up.

I don't mind internal meetings with colleagues where there might be a distraction, but when I feel slightly twitchy about HMRC staff or banks. Who knows who could be looking over their shoulder at your personal information?!

@AtomicRitual Even civil servants (eg ministers' right hand men often named in press, and ministers' personal aides) working on confidential national/international policy mostly WFH now. There are strict guidelines about devices, disabling Siri/Alexa, etc.

I'm not making sweeping generalisations that all parents are using WHF in lieu of childcare at all.

I'm not even talking about the occasional case where a child wants in with a 'can I have a?'. Those are minor interruption & are going to happen. Nor am I talking about during lock down when there was no other choice.

I'm talking about cases where it's obvious there are very young toddlers in a house. I must be the only one so. It's not just colleagues, it's with external people too.

It just seems unusual that I am the only one here who experiences it once or twice a week, bit if that's the case, I accept it must just be my experience alone!

👍🏻

This reminds me of my zoom interview last year, thought I'd managed out any possible distractions when in the middle of the interview the doorbell went very loudly and clearly as I was sat in the front room. I ignored it (of course!) but the interviewers laughed and said don't worry go and get it we'll wait. Best laid plans and all that!