{"id":10561,"date":"2022-03-12T14:00:38","date_gmt":"2022-03-12T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1382380"},"modified":"2022-03-12T14:00:38","modified_gmt":"2022-03-12T14:00:38","slug":"zoom-etiquette-yes-its-ok-to-mute-your-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=10561","title":{"rendered":"Zoom etiquette: Yes, it\u2019s OK to mute your face"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We\u2019re now years into this great experiment in remote work. It started off as a <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/topic\/zoom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zoom<\/a>, but now it feels more like a plod. Our work lives are lived on camera all day, every day\u2014and it\u2019s time to let people take a break.<\/p>\n<h2>Face-muting is ok<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/zapier.com\/blog\/remote-work-communication\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Communicating remotely<\/a> isn\u2019t new. For ages, we corresponded by mail. Then we added telegraphs, which increased the speed of communication. Then came telephones, which allowed us to communicate beyond cables. Fax, email, instant message\u2014the communication options continued to grow.<\/p>\n<p>We didn\u2019t see each other\u2019s faces, yet business still thrived.<\/p>\n<p>Video calls are great for a lot of things, like <a href=\"https:\/\/zapier.com\/blog\/best-screen-sharing-software\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">screen&nbsp;sharing<\/a> and picking up on non-verbal cues. But it doesn\u2019t mean we always have to stare each other in the face. Because, let\u2019s be honest, it\u2019s exhausting.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"post-image post-mediaBleed aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-featured_img wp-image-1382396 aligncenter js-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom-796x611.png\" alt=\"zoom call\" width=\"796\" height=\"611\" sizes=\"(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom-796x611.png 796w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom-274x210.png 274w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom-176x135.png 176w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom-352x270.png 352w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom.png 1400w\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-featured_img wp-image-1382396 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom-796x611.png\" alt=\"zoom call\" width=\"796\" height=\"611\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom-796x611.png 796w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom-274x210.png 274w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom-176x135.png 176w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom-352x270.png 352w, https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2022\/03\/michelle-zoom.png 1400w\"><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>We all know <a href=\"https:\/\/zapier.com\/blog\/when-to-mute-video-calls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">it\u2019s ok to mute<\/a>. But I want to make it clear that it\u2019s just as ok to face-mute\u2014to turn your camera off\u2014especially in certain situations.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>When eating.<\/strong>&nbsp;On days when I\u2019m slammed with back-to-back meetings, I often eat during calls. To avoid turning the meeting into a mukbang session, I turn off audio and video.<\/li>\n<li><strong>When multitasking.<\/strong>&nbsp;Not all parts of all meetings I\u2019m at are relevant to me. If folks are talking about something that doesn\u2019t pertain to me, I use that time for busywork, like checking Slack. I don\u2019t face-mute to hide my multitasking\u2014it\u2019s a good use of time\u2014but if I had my video on, it\u2019d be noticeable and distracting to others to see me doing something else.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In large group meetings.<\/strong> If no one\u2019s going to see you anyway, feel free to give yourself a break, so you don\u2019t have to worry if people noticed the weird way you itched your ear.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you don\u2019t have your game face on. We\u2019re not camera-ready 100% of the time. While time-shifting to accommodate time zones, I\u2019ve popped into 5 a.m. meetings. I\u2019m not getting up at 4:45 a.m. to get my game face on, and believe me, you don\u2019t want to see my face at that hour.<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s one more big one: face-mute whenever you feel like it.<\/p>\n<h2>How to encourage people not to face-mute<\/h2>\n<p>Yes, it\u2019s ok\u2014and sometimes important\u2014to keep your camera off during a video call. But it\u2019s also nice to see people\u2019s faces sometimes, and the visual aspect of synchronous communication has obvious benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of issuing a hard edict, you can encourage attendees to show their faces by implementing a few strategies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Have an agenda and share it ahead of time.<\/strong> It lets those who are multitasking know when something will be relevant to them. Instead of defaulting to camera-off the whole time, they can turn their camera on when it\u2019s a pertinent agenda item.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Keep things concise.<\/strong> It\u2019s easier to put your game face on if it\u2019s a shorter meeting, and people might be more open to camera-on for 15 minutes than 45. Don\u2019t schedule a one-hour meeting just because it\u2019s the calendar default.<\/li>\n<li>Ask engaging questions or use breakout rooms for small group discussions. People are more likely to show their faces if they\u2019re actually participating.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t record the meeting unless it\u2019s really necessary.<\/strong> Being on camera all day is tiring enough. Knowing that it\u2019s going to be recorded and live forever in the bowels of Skynet\u2014uh, the internet\u2014adds another layer of pressure. If a recording is necessary, add timestamps so people can easily skip to relevant sections, and enable closed captions and\/or transcripts so people can get the context without staring at everyone\u2019s recorded faces. As an added bonus, it\u2019ll make your meetings more accessible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I concede that meetings are sometimes (I repeat\u2014sometimes!) necessary, but you can decrease the burden of being camera-on all the time. It may not be a full zoom anymore, but see if you can at least turn that plod into an amble.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article by Michelle S. was first published on the Zapier blog. Find the original post&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/zapier.com\/blog\/why-you-should-turn-your-camera-off-on-zoom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/zoom-etiquette-yes-face-mute\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re now years into this great experiment in remote work. It started off as a Zoom, but now it feels more like a plod. Our work lives are lived on camera all&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}