mute yourself people! Just mute yourself!!

I'm in a company meeting right now, it started 20 mins ago. It's a virtual meeting as most of the company works from home. The CEO comes on and gives a few welcome comments and mutes herself to await the start of the meeting. As soon as she mutes herself someone in attendance says "God she's ugly" under his breath. Naturally as he speaks his picture gets a blue ring around it and the screens shuffle to put his picture at the top of the stack. It wasn't super loud, but loud enough that 3 of three people I asked heard him say it, and from her facial expression, she did as well.  

Wow, just wow. 

Yeah step 1 be muted so you don't cause a distraction. Step 2 don't be an shiny happy person.  I am sure the CEO felt great after that. People need to be nicer.

oooh, that's a career-limiting move right there.

I've seen enough accidental "reply to all" and "I thought I hit mute" failures that I don't even use the company tech to make those kinds of comments or anything.  If I have something funny to say, it's going to be via text message or it's going to be something that everybody would think is funny.  Or at least not offensive.

My boss got himself in slightly hot water by sending me some snide remarks about another person in the meeting via some Teams messages.  I was sharing my screen at the time and Teams was open in the background...  oops.

Ha, ha.  I'm so glad I retired from the world of office workers during the heyday of the fax machine.

When I worked in a call center, there were always people that muted themselves to scream and yell in frustration. I remember when someone was taking a recorded statement and one of the other employees just muted and let loose in frustration. It ended up being on the recorded statement and the legal team made them re-record it.

I have a screaming pillow.  https://a.co/d/9kTqbGp
 

Not something to be proud of. 

NY Nick said:

Yeah step 1 be muted so you don't cause a distraction. Step 2 don't be an shiny happy person.  I am sure the CEO felt great after that. People need to be nicer.

RE: Step 2 - That's pretty much how I felt. You have every right to think that. But why say it aloud? 

You guys actually pay attention in those meetings?  I'm always muted because that my paid by the hour YouTube time.

Come on DrBoost, bust a picture homie.

Added later...

Of course, use a snipping tool so it's just a flat file.

Sounds like someone needs to start telling people "My Wife just got a new puppy and it's the ugliest dog I've ever seen"

Start building the "misunderstanding" now.

I am apparently the only one in my company that knows how to mute other people in a Teams meeting.  Someone will leave their mic on and then take a phone call during a scheduled meeting.  Just mute when you get on people!  

In reply to Steve_Jones :

Haha. That's what I was thinking. He can explain that away, if done correctly. I don't know if anyone will really believe him, but he should really try.  

In reply to Stampie :

I never do. This is the one time I was paying attention because I was waiting for a file to open so I could do some real work. Now I wonder, was this a fluke, or am I missing good stuff like this often HAHA

I don't know why there isn't just a big red bar across the screen to indicate I'm muted.

I subscribe to this philosophy in day to day occurrences, not just meetings.

Mute thy self.

jmabarone said:

I am apparently the only one in my company that knows how to mute other people in a Teams meeting.  Someone will leave their mic on and then take a phone call during a scheduled meeting.  Just mute when you get on people!  

You aren't alone. My city still can't figure out how to run Zoom meetings. We'll be in the middle of the mayor's report and suddenly you hear somebody yelling at their kid or something. It isn't hard, mute everyone who isn't a council member or city employee. Unmute them when it is time for public comment. That's it. Nope, we just hope everyone mutes themselves and behaves.

I spent 14 years in telecommunications and lots of conf calls. 

You'd be amazed at how many people in telecommunications don't know how to work a phone! 

Appleseed said:

I subscribe to this philosophy in day to day occurrences, not just meetings.

Mute thy self.

Agreed. I think WAIT: Why Am I Talking? When I do that I can often times hold back from adding non value added commentary.

Our meeting today had 3 people running the telecom and display stuff and they still had a dude unwrapping candy or eating crisps during the meeting unmuted for about 5 minutes. It is literally one button push for the host to resolve this on our system. We even got to hear his coworker come over and yell at him to mute himself.

I dunno. I've always been uncomfortable trusting the mute button. 

If I'm on a call I just don't say stupid stuff. If you just pretend that people can always hear you, then you won't have any issues. 

I'll still mute whenever I'm not talking, but seriously. If it wouldn't come out of your mouth in person why would you say it "on mute"?

My last job I wanted to throw down the "is that you John Wayne" from Full Metal Jacket.  I never did but I thought it would be funny.....for 30 seconds.  
 

I'm sure this is safe for work......
 

It is a work meeting. Act the same way you would if it were in person. 

The "don't be an shiny happy person" rule applies everywhere.

jmabarone said:

I am apparently the only one in my company that knows how to mute other people in a Teams meeting.  Someone will leave their mic on and then take a phone call during a scheduled meeting.  Just mute when you get on people!  

It's actually MORE fun to unmute people randomly. I spent five hours on Webex today and the amount of time people are unmuting themselves when asked a question or it's their turn to talk show me how useless this form of business really is.