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Zoom meetings, while undeniably a productive way to communicate remotely, can be a pain.
While their remote capabilities allow for more freedom in work and life management, zoom is not without its pains. A zoom meeting with an unhappy client or coworker will make anyone wary of future zoom meetings. So zoom meeting etiquette – it’s one of the many skills you need to master as a remote worker.
In order to minimize the awkwardness that may arise from any given zoom meeting, there are a few rules everyone should follow.
No Silence
It is not okay to sit silently on a zoom meeting, whether you’re on mute or not, for more than 30 seconds after someone asks if you’re listening.
If your work requires that you be in zoom meetings very often, consider making rules as to what kind of zoom meeting participants should avoid – such as zoom calls with clients who might need an explanation as to why you’ve been silent for some time. You can also look into muting yourself from the room until people notice and comment on it themselves.
If Your Phone Rings, Don’t Answer It
If you are leading a meeting, be it a class or a conference call, your phone ringing is disruptive to everyone involved. You have blocked out this time to focus on whatever the meeting is about. Put your phone on silent and focus. Muting yourself to take a call is extremely rude.
You have no idea who could be calling you unless you look at your phone while it’s ringing. If it’s an important call that can’t wait until after the meeting, warn people at the start of the meeting and apologize in advance for the potential disruption caused by the call. In addition, if someone else’s phone starts ringing during the meeting, the appropriate response is to ignore it.
Do not answer your phone if it rings during a meeting unless you’re expecting a call about an emergency or something that needs immediate attention—and then tell everyone at the beginning of your meeting that you will excuse yourself for this call, explain why, and return quickly. If you are expecting an important call that you can’t reschedule, warn people at the start of the meeting and apologize in advance.
Don’t Say ‘You are Muted’
It may be frustrating that he isn’t participating, but shouting “you’re on mute!” makes you look like a zoom thief rather than looking out for your colleague.
Trying your best should include being polite about it – zoomers are just people too. If someone types during the zoom, they are probably doing their best to participate in spite of technical difficulties. They don’t need their colleague to point out colleagues think “so”.
This sort of behavior is disruptive and unproductive – zoomers will often go quiet if they think they’re not heard. Zoom isn’t the most straightforward of tools so you need to be patient with each other and yourselves.
Don’t Wait for People to Show Up
First things first, people are still doing this. It makes everyone think that the person who turns up late has done something okay or acceptable because no one said anything about their arrival time being wrong in the first place.
Usually, other people will arrive on time and be annoyed that everyone else has arrived late. We should all aim to show up on time so we don’t inconvenience anyone. Start the meeting on time. If someone shows up late, ignore them until it’s their turn to speak up or contribute something relevant to the topic.
Don’t go Overtime
This is a problem that affects a lot of people, and it has the potential to waste a large amount of time for everyone involved.
For anyone in a meeting, you should be well aware of the time and always keep your watch at hand to make sure it runs smoothly all around. Running overtime is not conducive or productive whatsoever; people will start losing concentration. To avoid this running overtime can be accomplished by sending out an agenda beforehand for everyone attending so they know what is going on (and how much time each topic will take). Make sure that if there isn’t enough time left the meeting to go over designated topics and still leave everyone with enough time to get back to their desks, then you need to end the meeting.
No one wants their time wasted, and the easiest way to accomplish this is by not going over your scheduled time. You can always say and still sound polite “I have another meeting I need to attend. As we’re now overtime, can someone please send me the meeting notes?”
We hope you find these tips helpful and you will implement them in your working routine!