Does anyone else feel stupid and embarrassed during/after Teams meetings?

[mycatwearsahat]

My work has a lot of Teams meetings. And 4 years in I still cringe at myself. I find it so awkward speaking to a group on camera, as it’s hard to pick up on reactions from others. I often have brain fog or trip over my words and feel like such a fool. I am sure people must think there’s something wrong with me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love working from home, and even when I go to the office I have to do Teams meetings (as colleagues work all over the place).

I don’t mind speaking on cam when it’s 2 or 3 people as i can watch just them and see how they respond , but I make a tit of myself when talking to big groups.

The most stupid bit is when we all wave bye. Why??

I find watching myself back on Teams excruciating. So, yes, I get it.

No. But 90% of my meetings are on Teams and have been for 6 years now. I’m a manager so lead most meetings, but I’m sure we all went through bumbling chaos back in 2020.

So we don’t have to unmute ourselves

Fortunately, we don’t have cameras on, so I don’t have to get out of bed or put some clothes on 😀

I don't.

I can do most of them without camera on, however. So I can be doing other things and listening which makes me more productive.

What I don't like is lateness which I think is easier when on line.

I find I’m less self-conscious if I do ‘hide self view’ or whatever it’s called.

I think there’s an awkward number of people in a meeting sometimes - maybe 5 or 6 - where it’s too many to have a proper conversation but not enough that people use the ‘hand up’ function.

Nah, some people are more suited to it than others. The same goes for face-to-face interaction. It doesn’t bother me.

Some of my colleagues write a good professional concise email and others don’t seem to have mastered written English, despite being native Brits. Some of us excel at one form of communication/interaction and not at others.

I do have a special disdain for people who talk about “legacy hands” or “giving you x minutes back”.

Yes, I agonise about my appearance on teams. Just to make matters worse, on the last meeting I couldn’t get my camera to work and everyone sat in silence waiting for me. I felt more of an idiot than ever 😔

I often have to chair meetings and use the record meeting function to help with minute taking. The having to listen to yourself back afterwards is excruciating.
I tell myself everyone else feels the same which helps. A bit.

I don't think anyone thinks enough about anyone else for anyone to be embarrassed.

However unless it were a conference sized meeting with a lot of people there I wouldn't expect anyone in a meeting I was involved in to have their camera off.

Nobody is thinking about you, they are too busy staring at their own faces in the corner of the screen. If you hide yours you’ll be doing better than most others in the meeting

What ???

I've been in many, many teams meetings with all sorts of different groups (work, outside people, voluntary stuff, and friends stuff.
I have never been in a meeting where people start waving at each other.

But no, (back to OP)
I've never felt stupid or embarrassed in a Teams meeting.

Furious? Yes
Frustrated ? Yes
This could have been an e--mail? Yes
Why do I have to sit through this when I've many other more crucial things I could be doing ? Yes
Even sometimes - that was helpful / useful / informative - Yes.

But why would I feel stupid ?

I honestly think you are overthinking it. I have regular teams meetings and always think I look and sound terrible but I really do believe that everyone else is mainly thinking the same about themselves.

Just don't forget you are on camera and go and brush your teeth and you can declare it a successful meeting.

My partner was cleaning out our chickens when he was on a conference call. He thought he was on mute but wasn’t and the hens were clucking away. Luckily only his immediate team so his boss just told him to get out of the chicken run!

No, I don’t think about it - too busy!

Regardless of who including me has camera on or off, I listen rather than watch, tbh, so won't notice what anyone looks like. I concentrate on finding info to action or retain.

Yes!
I did a training course on teams today, included in it we had breakout rooms (ugh!!) and we also had to voice record one part. We later had to listen back to the recordings.

Horrendous!!!

I don’t really care how I look on camera (well I do, but it’s my face and it doesn’t change all that much) and think I usually sound ok and make sense. I would have when I was younger, when I was very self-conscious, now I can’t give a shit. Lots of people in our meetings never turn camera on, can’t you do that OP?

Everyone turns the camera on, unless it’s a very big meeting.

Ha ha, do you work at the same place as me...

YANBU... What I actually hate is giving presentations/training online, especially if most people have their cameras off. It's like presenting into a void, and as you say, it's impossible to get any visual/body language feedback. It just feels so awkward.

I actually used to hate normal presentations, but compared to Teams, they're much more bearable!

I used to feel like this. Now I just mostly sit and side-chat. Our meetings were actually very fun in the early days. Lots of cats, someone’s husband accidentally appearing in a towel etc. Then we were all told to put backgrounds on and it’s now really dull.