A directory of managers and employees for remote work ... permitted and forbidden in online video meetings

Many of us switched overnight from office workers to remote workers due to the spread of the Corona virus, and we became increasingly dependent on video transmission applications, such as Zoom and FaceTime to communicate with our colleagues, and with our homes and workplaces merging into one environment, the boundaries between Our personal and professional lives disappear.

In his report published by the New York Times, the author, Brian X Chen, said that you may have made video calls with some colleagues who followed the meeting from strange places, such as a bathroom or cupboard, to avoid their children, and there are other employees who allowed their children and pets to be part From the meeting. However, this is not acceptable.

"There are technical problems and an upset about this," said Eileen Quinn - a Chicago-based entrepreneur - "People are not used to appearing on screen. They are not thinking of looking behind and seeing what people will see." No one was really prepared for such. Change, but a little preparation can make video calls convenient for you and your colleagues.

Test your system
call quality is the most common problem while making a video call. So, before you call a colleague over the video, the least you can do is take a test to make sure the call looks good, and that there's no major technical bug. You can achieve this by:

- Preview your webcam : Mac users can run the Photo Booth application, and Windows users can click the "Start" button and then the camera.

Thus, you can check your photo. Adjust the interior lighting and camera angle to make your face light up properly. Most importantly, keep in mind what is in the background, and don't leave anything that you don't want your colleagues to see.

Test the microphone: be sure to wear a headset with a built-in microphone or use an external microphone. The easiest way to make sure you look good is to make a video call with a friend, inquire about your voice, and then make adjustments accordingly.

Check your internet speed: Since many people stay at home and use the internet at the same time, the service may slow down sometimes. Visit Speedtest.net to measure your internet speed. If the speed is less than twenty megabits per second, there is a high possibility that your video will appear choppy and have a delay in sound.

MUTE
Many people forget about their mute before joining a call with several people, resulting in sounds such as dog barking and baby screaming.

In fact, in video chat services, like Zoom and Google Hangouts, you have the option to turn off the microphone before joining the meeting, then you can only replay the voice when it's your turn to speak.

Set limits.
Of course, our families are more important than anyone else, but this does not mean that our colleagues want to see our cats sitting on consoles, or our children throwing toys. Therefore, it is important to make a video call in a place where you can set borders, such as a room with a door that can be closed.

Set the agenda for
directors to make virtual meetings brief and interesting. "Creating an agenda for virtual meetings is very important," said Ms. Quinn, who had been managing employees remotely for pharmaceutical companies before starting work on the "Solopronor Specialist", a site for remote workers.

In turn, managers can take a number of methods to make video meetings more organized. For example, they can ask each employee before the meeting to plan to talk about a specific thing, so that everyone has a task to do, and they can continue to interact.

Be careful
and the author says that if you have something else important to do about making a video call, it's best to be polite, and apologize for not being able to continue the meeting, rather than staying on the call and clearly stopping attention.

And if you switch to a different app, like Twitter or Facebook, be aware that people may pay attention to it. For example, the Zoom app contains a setting that lets hosts know if you've been busy for more than thirty seconds.

Determine the number of meetings
companies may feel tempted to hold back-to-back meetings when working in offices. But with remote work, we don't need to repeat all those video-conferences, according to Jason Farid, founder of Pace Camp, a software company in Chicago that makes remote work tools. He added, "The essence of remote work is related to respecting people's time, attention, space and giving them space."

This is partly because asking your colleagues to join a video call involves several other things. They not only have to test their technical settings before joining the call, but they should also make other arrangements, such as having the caregiver take their children on a picnic abroad.

Alternatives and solutions
There is no universal law forcing you to use video chat to work from home, as the old phone has the same quality. Last year, when Mr. Farid used the video to interview candidates for a marketing position at Pace Camp, the last candidate joined the call while blocking the camera, explaining that he had better conversations when he walked around rather than sitting in front of the camera. And this person got the job.