In the current situation, the idea of enforcing strict 9-to-5 hours seems unnecessary and lacking in empathy. Eastern time generally works well across American and European time zones - when everyone agrees to be available to respond to messages or calls immediately. Daisley suggests setting aside an hour or two - 1 p.m. “A lot of people have been telling me that they have been having 20 hours of Zoom calls a week, and that their boss is insistent it’s ‘cameras on,’” he said.īut online responsiveness is not a good proxy for measuring productivity and can, in fact, be detrimental to getting real work done. Digital tools can enforce a sense of an obligation to be online at all times. “Because we’ve had to transition into this new way of working, it’s actually created new work for us to do,” Professor Cox said.īruce Daisley, author of “ Eat Sleep Work Repeat,” warns against trying to impose regular work structures on a remote team. Having to adjust suddenly to remote working means that, at a time when meetings are inherently more difficult, we find ourselves needing to hold more of them. Just remember to click the button again before you next speak, or else endure the shame of that now well-worn chant: “You’re on mute!” In a larger call of, say, more than five people, you should always mute your microphone when not actually speaking to prevent the discussion from being overwhelmed by a cacophony of background noise. One important point of etiquette around video calls is the mute button: Use it frequently, and use it wisely. You could start, for example, by taking turns to update one another on what you have been doing before allowing the conversation to flow more freely. While the rules are somewhat more relaxed if the video call is social rather than professional in nature, Professor Cox still advises appointing someone, however informally, as the call leader whose job it is to make sure everyone has a chance to speak. Setting a clear agenda for the call, which is always good meeting etiquette, is even more important. To avoid this, the simplest thing to do is to use a system of hand-raising some video apps have a function to do this digitally, or you can just raise a finger to the camera. Also, any cross-talk soon renders conversation impossible. It’s hard to tell on a video call if someone is looking at you, someone else or just absent-mindedly browsing his or her inbox. “But when we’re not together, we can’t share that information in the same way.” “When we’re in a group, we make eye contact and we use our body language to signal that we want to say something, and other people are able to pick up on that,” said Anna Cox, a professor of human-computer interaction at University College London. Many social aspects of life are slowly moving back to the physical space, but, for many people, returning to an office is a long way off, so keeping up your video-meeting etiquette will continue to be crucial. The biggest lockdown-induced shift in our relationship to technology is the video call, whether it’s via Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts or something similar. 1 thing to remember: Be kind, to others and to yourself. It’s certainly no time for pedantry, but a base level of etiquette is critical to keeping up good relations and avoiding miscommunication at a time when everyone’s already stressed enough. Digital etiquette rules remain more important now than ever. Although states are slowly reopening, much of our professional and personal lives will continue to be lived almost entirely online for the foreseeable future. The pandemic has caused the way we communicate to evolve, and our relationship with technology is being pushed into new territory. The usual chorus of “Hope you’re well!” was replaced, as if overnight, by a more somber, knowing variation: “Hope you’re well in these difficult times.” At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, a new phrase started appearing in my inbox with sudden regularity.
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