To record or transcribe all teams call in a remote job?

[hoven]

I work remotely from home for a large (500ish staff) company. Although I enjoy my role and the company, my team act less professional than others including my manager.

I get the feeling a few of them don't like me because I prioritise professional (and I really mean the bare minimum like not slagging of customers in the teams chat, making suggestions for improvement etc) over making friends.

AIBU to record using the transcribe function on teams every call I have to ensure if shit ever hits the fan I am protected. I will make sure to keep things distant and professional.

AIBU to

Also this will be under the guise of being easier to keep notes and I will explain it to whoever I am speaking with

I think it would be viewed as unnecessarily confrontational and aggressive and I'm sure there are other ways you can improve the situation. On Teams it tells you you're being recorded and you may well find people object, understandably.

Why do you feel you need to protect yourself? If you're remaining professional and working hard why would you?

You could do but where will you store it and
what is your work data policy?

YABU
Unless you let your colleagues know. Recording them without their knowledge is really underhand.
If you feel that strongly about it:

1. tell them you would prefer if the calls remain professional.
2. Tell them you are recording it ( which will be an incredibly unpopular move
3. Raise it with your manager

Are you even able to record it if you didn’t set up the meeting?

Rule is (at least where I work) if you're going to record someone you have to say so. Teams shows the conversation is being recorded.

People will disengage with you unless it's a formal meeting.

At my work if the session needs to be recorded (if someone is absent it sometimes happens) then the facilitator always says 'I'm going to record this meeting, starting now, is that ok with everyone?' or something similar...there never are any objections but I assume it's best practice to let people know.

My plan would be to tell them "just to let you know I'm recording this as it's easier for me to keep notes". And yes this can be done whoever calls first

What you're suggesting is not legal under RIPA, whether recording or transcribing. Like others say, asking people is unlikely to be popular, and your company is unlikely to be keen for company and data protection reasons.

You can of course always keep your own records, if you have concerns, try to use software that keeps records of dates and times. You could also email notes of a concerning conversation to eg a leader to confirm that you've got the right understanding and add an extra paper trail.

Honestly, if they're really bad you need to look at proper fixes or leaving. And if it's just a suspicion but nothing's actually happened, then think about whether this will make it worse or better.

I'm in the uk where we use gdpr I don't know what ripa is

My plan would be to tell them "just to let you know I'm recording this as it's easier for me to keep notes". And yes this can be done whoever calls first

And you can't 'just let them know', you need their clear consent, also most large businesses like you're describing would expect you to have management and IT consent also.

Everyone will know you are recording it if you use Teams/ Zoom functionality because a message pops up.

Just don't get involved and call out inappropriate behaviour, then you have no need to worry.

Something about you wanting to do this makes me think you may be contributing in some way to the problems.

RIPA is the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, it applies in addition to GDPR (which also doesn't support constant recording of others, under Article 5 you can't really argue this is collecting only the data you need, nor can you as an individual necessarily guarantee it's being stored and managed properly)

You have to ask if everyone is ok with you recording and both Teams and Zoom let's all participants know when recording has been started. The only way you could do it is surreptitiously using your own phone, but then it would come tonight if you ever had to use the recordings which kind of defeats the point.

If your calls involve discussion of the personal data of clients or customers then it must be stored in accordance with the dada protection act.

You may find your 'protecting yourself' actually lands you in hot water.

I don't really understand what you hope to achieve by this. Do you have grievances or do you just want to have something over people? It doesn't really make you appear a team player.

I'd think you were a bit of a knob personally. If there's stuff you are concerned about then confirm it in writing after the meeting, but it all sounds bit OTT and I doubt you'll be very popular among colleagues or management. People who do stuff like this are generally the people who are the problem in a workplace.

You'll only be able to record if you set up the meeting, and everyone will have to accept anyway. I don't mind being recorded for a townhall or similar but I would have an issue with a team meeting being recorded because for what purpose?

It seems like you’re hoping to stitch someone up rather than protect yourself, it seems like an oddly aggressive move for someone who’d rather not engage in office politics.

Well you think their behaviour is bad and your proposal is to counter it with illegal. Let us know how it goes.

RIPA applies to covert recording. OP is not proposing to do it covertly. She has clearly stated she intends to notify everyone it will be recorded plus it's very clear on teams if a meeting is being recorded.

Although having read your reply again I do agree it would be difficult to justify the need to retain all Those recordings unless you had a working reason to do so. Good for meetings with minutes etc but probably not so much for every single teams chat/call you have

Just use the transcribe function on Word, if its truly just for note taking assistance for your own records. No different than being efficient at typing notes out. Or just get better at note taking.

Usually employees only want to record other employees if a) they know they are a bit of a disruptive employee themselves so intend to cause a bit of drama by announcing they are recording or b) they think they are being targeted (so probably justifiable, if distasteful, especially if it does indeed prove harassment etc).

No you cant do that unilaterally. Id not he happy with that and imagine many of your colleagues wouldnt either.

You could use transcribe function rather than record if it genuinely about notes and not all interactions require notes