in defense of remote meetings
I often hear that remote meetings (work meetings happening virtually via Teams or other services) are too hard. They’re draining. People allegedly don’t connect, the small talk falls away, no socializing happens. That’s allegedly why people need to return to the office to have meetings in presence and get reconnected.
I get where this is coming from on an objective level, but I also don’t personally relate much. I don’t think the medium (remote calls) is the issue, it’s the people, and most people can be taught better and could also make more of an effort to make it work - both as a meeting leader and participant.
Growing up, starting when I had my own computer at 12, I spent a lot of time in voice calls and chats. It was my only way to really meet people. We played games together, we watched movies and YouTube videos together, we hung in calls just to shoot the shit and talk. Yes, of course we all started out like others at work did in the pandemic: No sense for the mic and when to mute, a bit draining, feeling awkward to speak, or awkward to be seen on a camera, if turned on. The headset might hurt and your ears sweat. But it fades. You get used to it and you learn. If you sound like shit, you buy a better mic.
It was more of the same for me in the pandemic. I even celebrated one of my birthdays during that time via Zoom and I had dates that happened digitally. I spent 10 hours on a call many times.
This stuff still goes on to this day. I have a digital pen and paper group every two weeks, and another whenever we have time. My fiancée and me stream MtG Arena matches or other games to people we know and wanna watch. We join calls just for each person in it to work on our own stuff - cleaning, studying, painting miniatures. I have a YTP Watchtogether session once a month with friends that are all over the world. We semi-regularly play Jackbox, Rifftrax, What The Dub, Monster Prom, Gartic Phone, Content Warning and more with each other via calls.
I just don’t know it any differently. Calls have never prevented me from small talk, from opening up and connecting, making friends, learning, from laughing or making jokes, from paying attention. When my focus fades during a work meeting, I continue working on the side - something I can’t do during in-person meetings. When I can’t pay attention during our PnP sessions, I play something mindless like PowerWash simulator to keep myself busy while not distracted to miss out. The DMs use images and digital maps, music, roleplaying, voices and sound effects to make it more engaging, too. My university lectures are all digital via Zoom, too - that’s 2h of concentrated listening and slides. We manage just fine.
I know, these aren’t completely similar to work meetings, but what I mean to say is: It’s possible to connect and have fun and pay attention in virtual gettogethers. It’s possible to reduce the draining feeling. You have to do the same things you have to do if you don’t want your in-person meeting to be boring: Interesting slides, captivating presentation, being lighthearted, audience participation, keeping things concise and not dry and overwhelming. You might need something to do on the side if you’re a listener. If you or your meeting leader fails to do these things, it would be shit in-person too. Hey, at least you can gossip in a side-chat during, doesn’t that count for something?
There also needs to be a push to realize you can schedule a meeting for whatever, even if it’s not work. You can just pick up the phone and call your coworker to ask about their day, too; takes about as much effort as going to their desk or the office kitchen. There’s no reason you can’t talk on a call like you talk in real life; I have done that for 16 years now.
I am the meeting leader at work, and one time my coworkers wanted to cancel the biweekly (every 14 days) meeting because there was nothing new to discuss. I said if you want, we can just hang out to talk a bit like we do in-person in the office, I’ll be in the Teams meeting room anyway. And they showed up and it was just like the office - people just talking casually and laughing, no awkward phases. And that includes people aged 60+! People can if they want to and if you do a good job and give them the opportunity to socialize digitally. They enjoyed hanging out for half an hour. It was no different than hanging out in a Discord VC.
So if employers are so afraid of employees losing connection because they don’t bother each other at unfortunate moments at their desks anymore because people are remote, why not remember that calls and group meetings in Teams or whatever don’t need a work cause? You can just hold that space for people and let them join if they want. You can even do digital co-working, just like there are people on the university Discord server I am in doing digital studying together in calls.
Of course there are still people who hate it. Fair enough! It’s not like anyone is trying to sell it as the new superior way to meet. But there are enough people hating in-person meetings too, or meetings altogether - you can’t make everyone happy and it is what it is. I just find it unfitting how much the medium is blamed when many people have done well with it privately for a long, long time. Remote meetings are just that - remote. What you make of a meeting is entirely yours.
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Published 29 Jan, 2025