Face-to-Face Meetings

I attend a fair number of meetings and mostly use video conference call software. My company prefers Microsoft Teams but my wife's company prefers Zoom. There are several other options as well. These technologies allows a single meeting to include people from all around the world without the need to get on a plane to meet in a central location. It is wonderful and allows me to work from home on most days.

Several weeks ago I had the chance to meet some of my colleagues in India. I had never been to India before and didn't know what to expect. While I wanted to add a new country stamp in my passport, I didn't want to spend that much time traveling unless necessary. Ultimately it took about 36 hours of travel each way thanks to both KLM and Air France having mechanical issues with their planes.

I arrived in Bangalore with enough time to get to the hotel, shower, and then head to the office. India is a beautiful country but Bangalore's population has grown faster than its infrastructure. While the airport is only about 40 miles from my office, traffic requires 3 hours to cover that distance. All that traffic means I couldn't walk from my hotel to the office even though the distance is just over a mile. Fortunately the office sent me a car every morning that also brought me back to the hotel in the evening. Another limit is that I knew I couldn't drink tap water and so I used the 6 liters of bottled water in my hotel room every day. When it came time to brush my teeth, I used that bottled water.

Now the reason for my trip centered around working with a team of guys I meet with regularly. I had met one or two in Tokyo but most of the team doesn't regularly get the chance to travel. The first thing I noticed is that my image of some team members didn't match reality. There is one guy that has such a soothing voice I imagined him to be about 5 inches shorter than me and just tiny. In reality he is 2 inches taller than me and regular build. He is still one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.

Another benefit of meeting in person is really getting to know the people I work with. When you are on a video call, you don't really have to interact with the other attendees. When you are all in the same room you get to find out what everyone is really like. That makes it easier to find common interests and get to know people.

I have been home from India for about 3 weeks and I have to say that my video conference calls are higher quality with the team in India. There is a lot more of that small talk before the meeting begins. While there never has been any disrespect, the respect for each other is higher after having met in person. I also find that the meetings seem to be shorter. Ultimately the people in the call are actually people and not just disembodied voices. I highly recommend getting together as often as time and distance allow. We had such a good meeting in India that I plan to go back next year. I figure that is often enough for such a long distance.

Late-Night Video Conferencing

One of the downsides of working for Sony is that it is a global company. Don't worry, that is also a bonus but it means that sometimes I am up early for calls with Europe and other times I have to stay up late for calls with Japan. Yesterday I got hit with one of those rare days where I met with our Brussels Lab in Europe early in the morning. Then later in the day I received an invitation for a 9pm meeting with Japan. Don't worry, I took time out for lunch, exercise and dinner so I wasn't working that whole time but it did make for a long day.

When I received the invitation for the 9pm video conference call, it came with an apology for being so late in the day. I responded that I normally practice guitar nightly at that time but would move my schedule around to accommodate the meeting. My boss, who is Japanese but based in Los Angeles, responded that he too practices guitar daily at that time and that we should have a jam session during our meeting. I thought it was an interesting coincidence that we both practice guitar at the same time daily.

The meeting organizer thanked us for adjusting our schedules so we could join the very important meeting. My boss responded by telling him to bring drums. I thought that was a great response and it got me thinking. 

Guitar players can be kind of eccentric with their long hair and wearing sunglasses even in dark rooms. I should show up for the meeting dressed like a rock star and get a few laughs before the meeting started. So my wife went and found a long-haired wig that I use for Halloween and I found a pair of cheap wayfarer sunglasses. Then I threw on a dress shirt over my Snowbird t-shirt but left it unbuttoned. Finally I set my guitar on my lap and joined the meeting.

My boss and the meeting organizer had already arrived when I logged on but didn't have their cameras turned on. They greeted me with silence and then my boss realized why I wore my costume and immediately grabbed his guitar to join me while we waited for about a half-dozen others to join. Everybody laughed and thought it funny. I pulled off the wig and sunglasses before buttoning up my shirt and we started the meeting. My boss tried to get serious and began talking but had trouble keeping a straight face for a solid 5 minutes.

At the end of the meeting we got a lot accomplished but we also had a good laugh that everyone commented on before closing. I figure if we are going to have a late meeting, we should at least have some fun. All attendees agreed.

Feeling a Bit Under the Weather

Saturday I started developing a slight cough. It is now Wednesday and I am feeling a bit under the weather. It could be that I keep waking up early and heading to Alta where I spend an hour hiking up the mountain and skiing down. That probably won't help me feel better but I do admit that I feel rather good even during the hike up. Unfortunately my cough has gotten worse.

I have gotten to the point where if I had to go into an office, I would probably opt to work from home so as not to spread my germs and get anyone else sick. I only wish that whomever gave me the cough had done the same. I have a sneaky suspicion though that it came from a family member as I don't really interact with anyone else.

Fortunately the world of COVID made it possible for me to work from home on a regular basis. It is normal to attend meetings using Zoom, WebEx, or Microsoft Teams. Now we just need to take advantage of the technology and not go into work when we are sick. I know that isn't possible for every job but if you can use it, then please do.

Quarantined Again

Friday morning I got up and sat down for my usual breakfast of flavored cardboard also known as Oatmeal. I took a bite and couldn't taste anything. This concerned me and so I tried tasting a number of different foods only to have the same result. The last thing I tried was a stick of wintergreen gum. It tasted like gum that had already been chewed for several hours and had no taste whatsoever.

My new office has had a number of cases of COVID and I figured I picked it up there. So as to not spread it any further, I let people at my office know I was going to stay home instead of joining everyone for a team activity. I then proceeded to adjust my weekend plans to avoid all contact with everyone. That sort of upset me as I wanted to go rock climbing. It is not safe to rock climb alone as you need someone to belay you and so I stayed home.

Fortunately my sense of taste returned later on Friday but I still felt that I needed to follow the CDC guidelines and quarantine myself for the next 7 days. I did take a COVID test only to have it come back negative. I would rather be safe than sorry, especially since the tests are not 100% accurate.

Fortunately we have learned a lot over the past 2 years. My weekend would have been amazingly boring without the technology that allowed me to connect with my family. I spent a lot of time having video calls with my kids and their families. I also met with friends using Zoom and that took a bit of the sting out of being alone. 

I still have 5 days to go and fortunately it is raining outside so I have an excuse to exercise indoors. I also can save gas by working from home and not going to the office 18 miles away. I actually don't feel sick and so I understand why people don't feel the need to quarantine even though they should. I just wish others would have quarantined. If they had, I wouldn't have to do it now.

Video Conferencing Suggestions

I am finishing up my sixth month of working from home and last night found myself trying to decide between 2 different video conference calls. Actually there was a third one I could also have attended but opted not to long before last night. Video conference calls are not just for work either. One of the calls I didn't bother attending was for a personal hobby. I know that families are also holding them in place of getting together and risking the spread of COVID-19.

In the first few weeks of working from home, people tried to continue holding meetings as usual. It didn't take long for insightful organizations to realize one or two changes needed to be made. My company put out some specific guidelines for video conferencing and I think many of them are worth sharing.

One of the benefits of face-to-face meetings is that you get up from your desk and walk to a conference room. If you need to stop and use the restroom, you have the option. You also get a minor change of scenery. With video calls you can schedule them back-to-back all day long and never have to leave your desk. An early suggestion we received is to cut back on the length of meetings. Instead of a 30-minute meeting, make it 25. If it is usually an hour, make it 50 minutes. This will allow people time to gather thoughts between meetings, grab a drink or snack, and take a bio-break if needed. My personal preference is to start meetings on the hour or half-hour and end early. Starting 5 or 10 minutes late is a bit tougher for me as I find myself waiting at my desk for the appointed start time.

Another suggestion we received is to see if we can cut down on the number of meetings being held. Some days are so full of meetings that people don't have the chance to do actual real work. What I have done with my team is remove one of our daily stand-ups each week. For those that don't know, daily stand-ups are short meetings where the team quickly reviews progress of daily work. We have them Monday through Thursday but not on Friday. Should something come up and we need to cancel one of the meetings, we reserve Friday for a make-up, just in case.

Cutting down on the number of meetings also goes along with another suggestion: setting aside one day a week with no meetings, if possible. Unfortunately this is a tough one for some people. My boss has multiple meetings every day and so even though we don't have stand-ups on Friday, he still has meetings. I am one of the fortunate ones that has no meetings on Friday and so I don't have to worry about making sure I am at my desk during specific times throughout the day. I generally use this freedom to actually get stuff done. So far this morning I have taken care of a load of paperwork I haven't had time to get to during the week. I am also making sure to put together this posting during my lunch hour so it doesn't distract from the time I am at work.

There are many other suggestions ranging from what to wear (you don't have to wear pants as long as nobody can see your legs), how to make sure you pay attention (taking notes helps me), and always making sure you are muted unless speaking in the meeting. For those that find themselves attending way too many meetings, you can put together an avatar that will attend your meetings for you. It is a funny read and should put a smile on your face even if it does have one or two issues. Good luck with your next meeting.

What Will Work Look Like after COVID-19?

We had a group weekly meeting today at work and the question came about what the office environment will look like after COVID-19. A year ago I worked for a company that felt it important to show up at the office every day. My being able to work from home one day per week was considered a very special circumstance. Now that everyone is working from home, people are questioning the old corporate culture. Furthermore a lot of people are much more effective working from home.

Recently we hired a new project manager and while some of us are effectively working from home, on-boarding a new team member is less than ideal. It takes a lot more mentoring and hand holding to get the new person up to speed. So how will this effect work after COVID-19?

 The meeting at work today was held over Microsoft Teams, which is a relatively new video conferencing application. With the large number of people using the service, there is a lot of innovation happening with the tool. Furthermore there are a number of other similar services that are advancing at an equally rapid pace. Some of the new features being offered are making video conferencing a much more viable option as a replacement for in-person meetings. So how will this effect work after COVID-19?

My wife and I went for a walk this evening and the topic of our cancelled vacation came up. This led to the discussion of whether or not I will need to travel as much for work. I had one year where I went to Japan something like 7 times. We don't think it will be necessary to ever fly that much in the future but are not quite sure. Will other people want to be travelling as much as they have in?

Unfortunately I don't have any answers. I could make a prediction but will most likely be wrong. I would like to believe that I will be able to work from home most days of the week. That would really help me rack up the ski days in winter. I would like to believe that I will still get all of those wonderful trips to the exotic country of Japan. Unfortunately that doesn't work with the scenario of working from home more often. Ultimately the current work environment is evolving and we are not done yet. Hopefully we can all look forward to those changes. While many people are filing for unemployment, I sincerely hope there is a place for everyone and think there will be. Of all the things I want to be right about the last one is the most important.

My Favorite Video Conference Application

I have not been to my office since March 7 of this year. Fortunately I still have a job but not going to the office because of COVID-19 means that I have to do all of my meetings using video conferencing applications. While it would be nice to take my meetings outside using my smartphone, I do 100% of my meetings using my laptop computer. For this reason, my favorite app is based on features available for the computer and not the smartphone. Furthermore it is important to know that I use my MacBook Pro and not a Windows laptop.

There are 3 major video conferencing applications: Zoom, WebEx, and Microsoft Teams. If Microsoft Teams sounds like a new product, it is based on their acquisition of Skype and leverages many years of experience doing video calls.

Unfortunately Zoom got a black-eye with a security breech early in the COVID-19 days. Because of that, my company does not allow anyone to use it for meetings. My understanding is that Zoom did a great job getting a fix in place and has gotten a lot of users with their free product which limits meeting times to only 40 minutes and have less than 100 people. My wife holds a weekly Zoom meeting on Emergency Preparedness for people in our community. She likes the 40-minute time limit as it keeps her meetings short and they can't run long.

WebEx has been around for a long time and is the video conference application I have used the longest. Recently I had a company-wide conference hosted on WebEx with around 200 participants. I recorded the conference and then sent people in my company links to the videos. That allowed people to view the conference even though they couldn't attend in person. Some of the presentations contained videos and WebEx has the ability to optimize for presentation text or multimedia (video and audio). That came in very handy. I also recently attended a company-wide WebEx meeting with 1000 people, which is the upper limit for the tool.

Finally there is Microsoft Teams and it seems to be the application of choice that my company is gravitating towards. One reason is that we use Office 365 applications and that means Outlook is our e-mail and scheduling program. When you want to schedule a video conference, you just click a button in the calendar program and a Teams meeting is automatically created. With WebEx, you have an extra step of logging into WebEx and setting up the meeting. My personal observation is that the quality of Teams is better than the other two video conferencing applications. The audio seems to be more clear and the video is equally impressive. Finally my favorite feature of Teams is the ability to use a virtual background. I took a picture of Snowbird and use it as my background, hiding the ugly gray walls and whiteboard in my home office. It does have the added conversation starter as people continually ask me if there is snow still in Utah.

So what is my favorite video conferencing application? It depends. If you are looking for a free solution, I think Zoom is probably your best bet. Unfortunately I don't have much experience with it. I also like WebEx for large meetings as they seem to have the better solution. Ultimately my workhorse for small group meetings is Microsoft Teams and I probably use it the most. All 3 solutions are full featured and differ only slightly in capabilities.

One final note is that I never see the bill for any of the video conferencing applications I use and so I have no idea on how much any of them cost. If cost is an issue for you, then you may rank the solutions differently.