On Zoom, Employees Figured Out How to Trick the Boss

After two years of Zoom video conversations and meetings, employees have figured out how to cheat the system. So when it comes to video meetings, does your staff wig out?

How Are Your Zoom Meetings Going?

You may act as if you’re interested in the  Zoom issue and actively participating in the discussions, but many of your employees are not really there — though you can see them sitting right there. Some individuals take advantage of the Zoom opportunity to market themselves and their businesses.

Our team is so great — but friends tell me in their companies — some team members believe it is their responsibility to make the manager’s life as difficult as possible for the next 45 minutes.

Let’s face it: folks tire of being Zoomed.

Zoom is a nexus for all online video services, including WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Skype.

They’re all fantastic, practical tools that have helped people connect and get work done throughout the epidemic, but spending hour after hour on tedious calls, on the other hand, is tiresome and exhausting.

How many times can you sit through your boss droning on about some obscure detail that no one cares about? Could the issue be a Zoom-induced coma?

Employees have developed coping techniques to deal with participating in video calls.

According to a recent poll by XLMedia, initially in the Daily Mail, consumers employ the following strategies on calls:

• Two-thirds of those polled admit to tilting their laptop camera to give the impression of being more potent in business discussions.
• More than a quarter of those who participate in Zoom calls while riding an indoor exercise bike do so to seem disciplined, healthy, and active.
• Eighty-two percent aim to create a positive first impression by wearing professional workplace gear above the waist and informal clothing below.
• Eighty-six percent confess to considering their onscreen background and design thoroughly.

Zoom through it

In Zoom meetings, over 54% claim they had formed the practice of saying something only to seem more engaged.

Fifty-six percent of employees attempt to seem busier than they are by departing Zoom sessions to attend another work meeting that does not exist.

One study showed that every three persons have pretended to be unwell while on Zoom, even though they were perfectly healthy.

More than two-thirds book meetings in their office’s online calendar or Zoom calendar to make themselves look busy.

Six out of ten said they use social media to make good things about their firm seem like a dedicated employee.

We were amazed at how far individuals would go to give their employer and coworkers a false image, said spokeswoman Dominic Celica of the 2,000-person poll.

According to a YouGov poll, 25% of individuals who use the video option on a conference call spend more time staring at themselves. So is this Zoom or doom?

This figure seems too low since many individuals may be hesitant to confess that they are continually staring at themselves. It’s not that they’re vain; many employees are uncomfortable and uneasy when the camera is on.

Regarding video conferencing, 44 percent of respondents, from executives to entry-level staff, claim that terrible WiFi is their top pet complaint.

According to new research from VPNoverview, more than a third of participants had a slew of complaints, including too many people in one room for everyone to talk (37 percent); constantly being interrupted (35 percent); eating food while on a call (34 percent); not paying attention (33 percent); not muting oneself when one is not talking (33 percent); lax paying attention (33 percent).

The Verge weighs in

The Verge published a fantastic video meeting hack, especially for Zoom.

Zoom Escaper is a free online program by artist Sam Lavigne that adds various bogus audio effects to your video conference, giving you an excuse to leave when things become dull. And to avoid burnout.

Barking dogs, construction sounds, screaming infants, and even subtler effects such as choppy audio and unpleasant echoes are all options.

Zoom is rolling out a variety of new features, including one that will make it a lot more difficult to casually attend a meeting late, The New York Post noted, as if video conversations weren’t awful enough.

This tool is  “Attendance Status.” It enables hosts to observe whether or not people accept their meeting invitations. Likewise, whether or not they attend the call.

There will be a “Not Joined” list of names to highlight those who did not show up.

The Putrid Zoom Business Jargon

The growth in Zoom business jargon is another irritation — but so is former business jargon. Business cliché jargon that should be tossed by all leadership and employees alike should include anything on the buzzword bingo list:

Buzzword Bingo — check your clichés usage and get rid of these words in your Zoom meetings. Bandwidth, low-hanging fruit, circle back, I need to jump on another call; you’re on mute, we lost you there for a minute, can you see my screen, we’ll take this offline, I have a hard stop, double-click, deep-dive, the new normal, boots on the ground, give 110 percent, win-win, alignment, back pocket, close. Keep a stiff upper lip. Keep cool. Buckle up. It’s a bumpy ride. But worth it. So stay focused. Use your common sense.

Seriously, I could go on forever and have made tiny marks on a paper for how many of these statements occur during meetings — just to keep myself awake.

Zoom or doom?

When talking about Zoom or Doom — it’s likely both — unless you take the time with careful planning to make your meeting worth attending. Many meetings are essential, but some are not — do away with the ones that you can. Likely the video meetings are not going to go away anytime soon.

Listen to the advice that experts give you on how to make your meetings more worthwhile — then make your own decision.

You can’t lose what you don’t have — or find what you haven’t lost, so part of making your essential meetings worth attending, including the video meetings, is to make them beneficial.

You already know this part too — so act on it — don’t just have a meeting to have a meeting.

Image Credit: Mikhail Nilov; Pexels; Thank you!