Zoom-Call Gaffes Led To Someone Getting Axed, 1 in 4 Bosses Say (bloomberg.com) 82
Zoom-call blunders can be hazardous to your career. From a report: Nearly 1 in 4 executives have fired a staffer for slipping up during a video or audio conference, and most have levied some sort of disciplinary action for gaffes made in virtual meetings, a survey of 200 managers at large companies found. The survey, commissioned by Vyopta, which helps companies manage their workplace collaboration and communication systems, also found that executives don't fully trust a third of their staff to perform effectively when working remotely. The pessimistic findings illustrate how workers are still getting accustomed to working remotely, which has become commonplace during the Covid-19 pandemic. Daily participants in Zoom calls surged from 10 million a day at the end of 2019 to 300 million in April 2020, the conferencing company has said, and in recent weeks many companies have pushed back their plans to return to offices due to the delta variant's spread. Some Zoom miscues, like New Yorker magazine writer Jeffrey Toobin getting fired for inadvertently exposing himself, have been well-publicized.
Is that the listed reason for the termination? (Score:2)
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If the "boss" is an asshole, then telling the boss it is an asshole is fair game. If it does not like it, that is too fucking bad.
The real problem is the lack of testicular fortitude demonstrated by the slave class.
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> You do not have the ability to fire the boss.
Yes you do, it's called: "I QUIT".
It just so happens that you ALSO fire everyone else in the company too.
Maybe you should study relationships more ... /s
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It's not the same is it.
Company fires you: firee stops getting paid
You fire the company: firer stops getting paid
Re: Is that the listed reason for the termination? (Score:2)
Company stops getting your labor. It's essentially the same thing.
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Are you familiar with the concept of "employement at will"?
Re: Is that the listed reason for the termination? (Score:1)
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That was "its" pronoun. :P
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Feel free to call an asshole an asshole, but you better be prepared to be fired. It's not always about "testicular fortitude", some people can't afford to walk.
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We are a year and a half into this and in my view it is now no more acceptable to botch the online meeting technology than it was to botch in person meeting back when we were in offices If you honestly still need someone to remind you to take yourself off mute, or mute when you aren't participating, or mute when your dog starts barking, or wear a shirt when the camera is on, or which button shares your screen, or that your gas station headset doesn't work well,
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Maybe these people were mostly fired in the first month or so when it was new?
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One of my end users told me he "is not a computer guy" and got all pissy when I told him that makes him unemployable in 2021.
His boss paid for some training, but it hasn't taken.
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It really depends. My company was using Zoom before the pandemic. We still are and its interface has been mostly stable.
At least one of client companies I work with has moved from WebEx, to Zoom, to Teams, to Goto, and back to Teams in the space of March 2020 to now. I would not fault a non-IT employee for being a bit clumsy switching interfaces so often. Just like getting into a five or six speed after having only been in automatics for a decade or so you'll be a little clumsy for sure at least for a hou
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We had a woman who's cat was in heat and it kept pushing open the door to her home office.
Her punishment was being muted and laughed at.
Had a guy show up to a staff meeting, crack open a beer on camera and say 'let's get this shit started'.
Hie punishment was as a verbal warning for inappropriate behavior.
All I can assume is that some business owners/managers are just uptight assholes if this study is legit.
Here are the reasons, excerbated by Zoom (Score:2)
From the article:
-- ... plan to maintain or expand the number of employees allowed to work a hybrid schedule over th
Virtual-meeting miscues include joining a call late, having a bad Internet connection, accidentally sharing sensitive information, and of course, not knowing when to mute yourself. The slip-ups can hurt businesses, leading to client defections, lost sales opportunities or missed deadlines, the survey found. Still, executives continue to support working from home, and nearly 3 out of 4 surveyed
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The online meeting format just makes these things more likely to happen
Absolutely. The physical world is more natural to us and no matter how experienced we become with technology, it's still an artifical layer of extra complexity.
My story is being on one of those large 'town hall' meetings with the CEO - 100s of people across the world - waiting for it to start. I was muted, grumpy and started ranting and swearing (pretty sure I included c*nts) about the corporate-speak intro slide and what a waste of time this was. My colleague next to me said "Is that you? You know you're c
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Yeah I've done something like that. I try to assume my mic and camera is always hot. Though my camera is never actually on. Come to think of it, I should put a Post It over the camera I never use.
As part of the security team, once in a while when a laptop goes missing, meaning it's probably been stolen, I remotely turn on the camera to see exactly where it is. I'm aware that it's possible for the team in charge of laptops to assign one and mess up the paperwork. Meaning I could be tracking a "stolen" laptop
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Ps - the camera has shown me that it's in a pawn shop, or on a shelf in the equipment room. I do NOT have any reason to turn on the microphone, in my view. I don't have any need to hear what's being said.
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New Yorker magazine writer Jeffrey Toobin getting fired for inadvertently exposing himself
I love how they phrase it as "inadvertently", like maybe his pants ripped or something.
What actually happened was that he was participating in a video conference over Zoom and decided that he really needed to watch some porn and jerk off. Apparently, a guy who is a "prominent writer and CNN's chief legal analyst" doesn't understand how cameras work.
So yes, it probably was "inadvertent", but that is a technicality which is irrelevant to the story. In reality, this is just another case of someone whos
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Whoa there buddy, cool it with the antisemitism!
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Apparently, a guy who is a "prominent writer and CNN's chief legal analyst" doesn't understand how cameras work.
"I have an assistant to handle technology."
Re: Is that the listed reason for the termination? (Score:1)
Apparently, a guy who is a "prominent writer and CNN's chief legal analyst" doesn't understand how cameras work.
News at 11... just don't expect to see it on CNN.
Re: Is that the listed reason for the termination? (Score:5, Funny)
I rarely have zoom or conference calls, but when I do,
I drink Dos Equis
Stay thirsty my friends.
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I rarely have zoom or conference calls, but when I do, I avoid turning on the camera and stay on mute...
In which case you were fired for skipping the meeting.
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I always dress up with my employers dress code (mostly) when ever I am working from home, I never know when Ill be on a meeting or will be asked to show my self. If you are a virtual meeting and you are the only person not showing video, that too is suspicious.
Sure I don't have shoes on, but I have a work approved shirt and pants, I keep my beard trimmed, and my hair bushed and neat during the workday. I also keep my backdrop behind me clean and neat.
Often when we are alone, it is easy to be too relaxed.
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see Disney's classic short, "Mr. Walker and Mr. Driver", in which Goofy transforms behind the wheel.
Of course, last time I saw it was on a 16mm projector, but . . .
This one was classic (Score:4, Funny)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Funny but it says clearly "Do Not Record" (Score:2)
Thank you for the chuckle - but where did the video come from as it clearly says "Recording of this hearing or live stream is prohibited"?
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That is the thing about signs. Any asshole can post a sign saying anything. This does not mean that you can/cannot/must/mustnot do what the sign says, it merely means that someone posted a sign.
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It's not just any asshole, it's the court and that very much means you must not record it. It very clearly says they could jail you for half a year for contempt. In this instance IIRC it was the court/judge making the recording so I guess that makes it ok. IANAL.
Re: Funny but it says clearly "Do Not Record" (Score:2)
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I wonder what happened to him after that went viral.
You know there are a few rules (Score:4, Insightful)
Keep your camera and microphone off.
Keep your pants on.
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And make sure your camera is covered unless you actually want other people to see you.
Re:You know there are a few rules (Score:4, Insightful)
And make sure your camera is covered unless you actually want other people to see you.
20 years ago, I worked with people who covered their cameras with duct tape.
They weren't wrong.
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The first thing I do with a new phone nowadays, is give it to my phone repairman buddy who physically disconnects the fingerprint sensor. Costs me 5 bucks.
Sadly adding a physical switch for the camera itself, while also possible, is not as easy as it sounds. (Unless you want it to look like shit, with somebody sawing a hole in the back of your case. And those tiny switches are flimsy.)
I can highly recommend those silicone stickers that don't need glue, if you still want to use the camera. But they only work
Re: You know there are a few rules (Score:2)
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Im far more worried about audio than video.
Re: You know there are a few rules (Score:2)
Microphone on, pants off. Got it. Wait, what?
how do I get out of this chickenshit outfit?!! (Score:2)
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Re: You know there are a few rules (Score:2)
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Why would I wear pants if nobody's recording me?
It's not the Vatican of Antarctica in here, mate!
Re: You know there are a few rules (Score:2)
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One of the things that we've done at a couple of places I've worked is daily meetings, like on the schedule and never postponed. It's a way of getting people into the "yes you're gonna be on camera" mindset. If my camera came on or if I forgot to turn it off there's nothing really interesting to watch that you wouldn't see at my desk at the office other than my cat being playful. This is a result of planning my work area to accommodate the daily meeting.
The most notable zoom-goof I've seen is a buddy o
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I had a coworker who complained about my eye movement. Said it was disrespectful.
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Yikes.
The dog door exits out of my office space, I've had to do a fast mute in the middle of a sentence as they barreled through on their way to bark at something.
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Wow, what's her thought process behind this, that you were checking her out, or ignoring her? Could you wear sunglasses, or maybe a pair of those googly eye specs?
Oh come on... (Score:2)
I've had literally hundreds of hours of conference calls in the past 1.5 years. I've seen the occasional cat jump in frame, the occasional kid fly by and even a distant shriek of anger. I've never seen this level of issue. This sounds, once again, like some old fogeys worried about their stonks in the face of a commercial real estate collapse. Being related by birth to a couple old fogeys, I would impart some wisdom they shared with me once: "You made your bed, now you sleep in it", which is exactly what ne
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I heard "You made a shit, now go sit in it!" too. ;)
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I used to work from the office but with at least partially virtual team so conf calls have been a constant thing for the last 10 years. Never had anything weirder than some background noise (usually dogs or kids). Just to be safe, I keep the mic muted unless I'm talking, always fully dressed, and never have any porn or other inappropriate material on the work computer in case I share the wrong window accidentally or something.
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Also, for all meetings but those with a small number of participants, everybody keeps their cameras off, and the leader of the meeting puts up the agenda, or other relevant documents, occasionally handing control off to others. It makes no sense to have a couple dozen faces showing just to eat up bandwidth when only one person is t
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I would say the rule for dress should be at minimum (even if you mean to have video off) is make sure you wouldn't mind being seen wearing that at work on a day off.
Business up top, sweatpants below is ok, boxers below is no-go.
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Yeah I obviously didn't mean "fully dressed" as in wearing a suit. Just not, like, naked below the waist. Because you might have to get up to get something during the call and forget the camera is on.
Last meeting I had was so long, we had to take a break in the middle. I turned the camera off when getting up to get some water, because even though I was wearing sweatpants, I still didn't want people in the office, including my manager's boss, to see this. Worst case if the camera didn't switch off, because T
Does the study even try to tell the difference (Score:2)
Between "executives don't fully trust a third of their staff to perform effectively when working remotely." and "A third of executive don't fully trust any of their staff to perform effectively when working remotely"?
Is the problem a third of employees, or a third of executives?
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Is the problem a third of employees, or a third of executives?
Yes.
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Re: Does the study even try to tell the difference (Score:2)
Important missing context (Score:2)
What percentage of executives have fired someone because of a gaffe in an In person meeting?
Then there's *that* guy... (Score:2)
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Was in the restroom at a client's site a decade ago and some idiot was sitting on the crapper while doing some sort of sales presentation on his phone. I made sure to flush a couple of times for good measure.
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Naked Gun: The Sound of Relief
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Yeah, who cares if they're competent! (Score:2)
All that matters is how they look!
This is not new.
Some bosses are like that. (Apparently 1 in 4.)
Come early, go late, look busy in-between, look like you got something done, have your work place look tidy, don't give any attack surface, and make them like you. And you'll have a well-paid job forever. Maybe even replace your boss. Competency: Not required. Only look like it. They can't tell the difference.
You can have the best ideas, be the most skilled, do the best things for the company, pour your heart an
Re: Yeah, who cares if they're competent! (Score:2)
Old problem (Score:1)
It seems pretty unlikely you'd get fired (Score:2)
if the boss really valued your work. But if he has been wanting to get rid of you, screwing up in front of a lot of people is a terrific pretext for pulling the trigger.
I once had a young woman working for me who had a meltdown in which she very publicly dressed down the CEO. Afterward he took me aside and told me to fire her. It absolutely was a firing offense, but she was an outstanding (and very young) employee who had been having a very bad day.
Fortunately this was Boston area non-profit and she came
except if you're a CNN talking head (Score:2)
Then of course you can whack off on a Zoom call and all is forgiven by CNN [nypost.com]
I think the article could have stopped... (Score:2)
...also found that executives don't fully trust a third of their staff...
to which I always reply, "If you don't trust them, why did you hire them/why do you keep them?" I feel like all these "Is remote work good?" articles just come down to "HR, executives and managers don't like not being able to control people or don't trust them. How can we justify that?" In the larger companies, they have remote meetings all the time due to people being in different offices across the country. The executives are often off-site or at their home or something. But heaven forbid people tha
I survived (Score:2)
I survived my gaffe. Finished a meeting with the boss, clicked the X to close the meeting window, immediately dragged over and maximized a window with a nude that my ex had just sent me. Didn't realize I was still sharing my screen. Coworker is a bro and messaged me right away. Not sure if my boss saw, but he eventually quit and I'm still around.
This is only fair.... (Score:1)
switch to teams (Score:1)
just more reason to switch to Teams
A "balancing" will occur, inevitably (Score:2)
Clearly the idea of a permanent hybrid approach for all "desk bound workers" isn't going to fit in every market - I'm pretty sure, that once the pandemic has settled down into "another virus to get vaccinated against yearly" - like flu - for many, the return to the office 9-5, 5 days a week grind will be back on the cards.
For starters, there's just too much real estate and side-trade at risk - cities have emptied, causing a huge disruption in trade.
Governments worldwide are already chomping at the bit to pu
poor internet connection listed (Score:2)
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Why is it any different than requiring someone have certain certifications, degrees, or skills? Why, if the employer says sure you can work from home, but then you log in on dial up for a zoom meeting, can't they tell you that you're not living up to expectations?
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Why is it any different than requiring someone have certain certifications, degrees, or skills? Why, if the employer says sure you can work from home, but then you log in on dial up for a zoom meeting, can't they tell you that you're not living up to expectations?
qualifications are absolutely different than requiring you to supply the conveyance of the work. Imagine if you worked in a factory and they required you to supply the plastics or in an office and required you to supply paper and toner for the copier - and then fired you because you used inferior materials.
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There are plenty of trade jobs that require the worker to supply their own tools. Your connection isn't any different than that.
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There are plenty of trade jobs that require the worker to supply their own tools. Your connection isn't any different than that.
again not the same thing. it isn't providing tools, it is providing the worksite. Also you are not providing the tools, someone else is so you would be fired for something beyond your control. It would be akin to you being responsible for google going down if you used gmail because your employer did not supply an email. california state law says: The California Labor Code requires employers to cover "all necessary expenditures or losses" that workers incur while doing their jobs. Those costs can include the
Reminds Me (Score:2)
This reminds me of when I briefly worked in a test group, and shared an office with the test lead. We were on a conference call with the project engineer (PE), who worked in another state. We wore one eared headsets, and normally would have ours muted so people on the call couldn't hear background crap, and we could do other stuff while listening in. We often disagreed with this PE, and this time he was giving a status update to our govt. customer when I suddenly heard my test lead mumble "oh, bullshit".
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Oh, and there were also times where we heard other things...people who had called in from their car, cursing at other drivers, and someone from home flushing a toilett.