Working from home: How are you finding Zoom, virtual business meetings, etc.?

[kyle]

Incredibly draining. Can't butt in easily. And gets annoying when phone starts ringing, Teams messages coming through, and everything happening at once. Aarrgghh.

 

[SeatBackForward]

My work is mainly reading, thinking and writing with occasional meetings. So electronic meetings have been fine (huge data munchers, but fine). I'd be happy to carry on with the new way.

One of my friends has a job that seems to be back to back meetings. She has absolutely hated WFH because she hasn't even been able to get 5 minutes to herself between meetings to walk to a different meeting room, she's just been on the computer all day. She says she hasn't felt so exhausted since her kids were tiny. She can't wait to go back to the old way.

Is the back-to-back meetings because of WFH or is it part of her job anyhow?

 

[OATEK]

I have used Zoom and Teams since March, but as I only work (very) part-time it has been ok. It is a bit annoying when some participants have to murmur a response to every comment, affecting the sound stream, and making the "active" screens constantly change. As my work generally requires me to sit down F2F with clients, it has dried up since my last assignment that ended around the time our borders closed (no connection).

A typical day for me is 5-6 interviews of around an hour, a client debrief and writing up (typing) that is not well suited to WFH. Sometimes I might have to deal with up to 8 or so persons in a single meeting/interview, and on CCTV sessions you can barely see their faces let alone judge the veracity of their comments.

For some years now, when working for decentralised clients, there has been a lot of Webex/Skype sessions, many of which were very poor for effective communication. Rooms with cameras facing the window, dodgy mics hanging from the ceiling etc have long been an issue.

While online meetings can work for certain situations, FTF is often needed at some point. But if you want to make a $ you just have to go with the flow.

 

[Snowant]

I love working from home, have been doing it since I had to leave office work, because the chemicals in perfume make me really ill. They stopped smokers from polluting the air, but apparently people wearing harmful chemicals are OK.

So I do public service recruitment, I run some processes from the start, take the notes at interview, do the referee checks and produce the reports. Perfect for working from home. I hope the measures continue, as it's so much more enjoyable to log in from home than to get up before dawn, put on uncomfortable clothes, drive for an hour, fight for a parking spot and walk to whichever building they're in, sit in a room full of fumes, feel increasingly sicker, and then go home.

For what I do, dialling in is perfect and I'm quite impressed with the functionality of Zoom, much better than Skype and phone-based teleconferencing. The clarity and stability are excellent.

Only issue is my dogs who become increasingly unhappy with me being locked away in a room. I've had to set up the old demented one in a snuggle bed in whichever room I'm using, and hit "mute" when his snoring gets a bit OTT. the youngest one goes outside, works out where I am and barks at the window.

 

[Blinky]

I’m having about 5 or so zoom catch ups a week. One is our pub one at 4.30pm on Friday, which is the highlight.

I still have face to face meetings most days (one at 7am tomorrow) and am getting productive work done, but like nearly everyone am below target. Can’t see me back in the office for several months at leas.

My wife retired about 10 years ago and enjoys her life of catching up with friends, meeting with the children and caring for grandkids. With the easing this week she is much happier and can get back to her normal routine.

The interesting thing is the dynamic between me and her. We’ve been married 48 years and things have been working well, with me interstate often and her with her own life. This, of course, came to a stop in February and we lost our own private times. Early on there were tense moments, but we have, probably unconsciously, worked things through. I have been drinking less, but am also exercising less.

When the gym reopens soon, I think I will get closer to normal.

Business travel looks like it will almost disappear unless I can get a few accounts over the line, which I’m working hard on. Travel on my own dime will resume when it can.

Overall not so bad.

 

[QF WP]

I've had all of my normal meetings with investment managers and clients done via electronic means since March (Zoom etc, or telephone). Zoom etc are highly effective one-to-many but not as effective one-on-one in my circumstances. You can't lean over and point out a solution in the documents, rather one needs to verbally direct the client where to look and hope they can find (or open up another attachment in the emailed documents I have sent trough before each meeting).

A lot of my travel has now backed up and once the limitations are lifted, I'm off to PER, MEL and SYD in the first month. I'm also not as effective working from home (even without kids there). Everything I need is in my office and as my wife works from home 3 days/week already, we're not condusive to working together in the same home office. I'm so happy being back working in my office (here's only 2 of us, so little to no risk factors).

Looking back in my diary - 10 webinars in March and 2 client face-to-face appointments (both in early March before lockdown). 6 of those webinars were cancelled face-2-face events. April - 17 webinars (3 cancelled f2f) and 2 Zoom meetings with clients (most others are done by telephone). May - 19 webinars and 2 Zoom meetings with clients. Already in June are 5 webinars done and another 6 booked. Aaarrrrghh

 

[JohnM]

All I can say is I'm glad I don't have to do meetings of any sort.

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm just going to zoom off to the beach on a PERfect sunny day...



Soooorrrry...

 

[Hvr]

The office has been evacuated due to a water leak and power failure.

I'm sitting at home continuing to work hard. I'll be more productive now the remaining meeting has been cancelled.

 

[blackcat20]

I quite enjoy it, but I'd done the odd day here and there before it was a requirement. I still do two days in the office which gets me my social fix, plus I can do things that can't be done at home. Being at home gives me time to get chores done as well, plus I get a sleep in (as does the Miss), and I can get dinner sorted before I pick her up from daycare.

 

[VPS]

All I can say is I'm glad I don't have to do meetings of any sort.

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm just going to zoom off to the beach on a PERfect sunny day...

View attachment 219486

Soooorrrry...

Liar liar - pants on fire.

 

[JohnM]

Liar liar - pants on fire.

Pffft... - Zoom this then:

 

[VPS]

Pffft... - Zoom this then:

View attachment 219490

Right that's it - I'm off for a walk on a proper beach in Adelaide

 

[Flashback]

When I was working full-time, I was a b2b all day kind of guy. Goes with the type of work I do and have been doing it for so long it doesn't phase me. Been a WFH worker for a long time too, so again no difference to me. What I did find odd is that as soon as this started happening due to COVID-19 everyone wanted to switch to using video. Why? Never done it before, never had the need to. Fortunately that novelty wore off pretty quickly. That is in a company though that is used to doing teleconfs etc. for a long time, so not surprising.

It's been interesting watching my wife work, all the meetings she has everyone still puts their video on. They're not used to WFH and/or working remotely and most of their meetings were always in person, so I guess they just don't feel comfortable using a standard teleconf and instead want to inflict videoconf on people. Hey ho.

Arggh. Yesterday I had to call B2Bpay as a biller. Finally got through after a queue, answered by the person, next thing I hear a child crying out for mummy, next thing I'm hung up on. Some may use WFH as a reason not to send kids to child care and save money.

I've had that when calling Booking.com a few times. While currently we 'accept' that and say "it's not a problem" when they do apologise for the noise, I wonder how long it will be for that to become unacceptable again. I often find myself having to repeat what I'm saying as they can't hear me due to background noise.

Again, having done the WFH/teleconf thing for a very long time anyway hearing dogs barking etc. in the background is quite common anyway.

 

[JohnM]

...proper beach...Adelaide

Now THAT is an oxymoron.

 

[VPS]

Now THAT is an oxymoron.

It could be a very fraught road trip

 

[daft009]

we're a small engineering/automation firm.. its always good to meet F2F and discuss "what if we do it this way" brainstorming solutions.
doesnt work with us over teams as we get interrupted by customer calls for sales or support or orders "i'm coming in 30mins to pick it up, can you get it ready"

I also had some first time meetings lined up in Asia so had to postpone this, I do not want to carry out business development activities over Teams as we're a products business. customers need to see/feel to appreciate the quality, otherwiser its just a $ on a pricelist.

Was supposed to be in SIN/HKG/TPE last week but thats been postponed.

 

[GSP]

When the internet is flaky as it has been for me the past few days, it causes all sorts of problems.

 

[daft009]

When the internet is flaky as it has been for me the past few days, it causes all sorts of problems.

My NBN has been Rock solid fingers crossed
Superloop FTW!

 

[jakeseven7]

Our CEO just announced Friday as a zero zoom and Webex day. You should have seen the positive reaction

Clearly the feedback is universal

 

[JohnM]

Every day is a zero Zoom and Webex day for me.

Although, that said, my wine group's Zoom iso tastings were a blast.

But we're back to FTF tastings two weeks tonight. Theme, appropriately, Champagne