[DING]
Hi, students.
Hope you're well.
In today's video, we're going to talk about the new rules
for being on Zoom.
This is a video for professionals who work on Zoom
and need to do Zoom calls as part of their job.
And I thought it was timely to make this video because
after a year of lockdowns, so far at the time
that I'm making this video, we've all
had a lot of experience being on Zoom, and we've reached a point
where no more excuses, OK.
You've got to present a professional image
at this point.
It's going to reflect badly on you in your job
if you do some of the things I'm going
to talk about later on in this video.
If you have bad manners.
I'm sure in this time, we've seen
some examples of things that aren't very good to do on Zoom.
So I'm going to go through some of them,
so that you can present that professional image.
And generally what we're talking about here is social etiquette.
This is word from French, and we say it like etiquette.
This is what's the norms, what's acceptable,
what are you expected to do, and how to behave in society.
So we can have etiquette regarding manners on something
specific like Zoom.
And I think at the beginning of all of this working
from home stuff people were still figuring it out.
But I have seen in my appointments over the last year
that those rules, they've become more widely known.
And I speak to students from all different countries, lots
of professionals, and I got their opinion on this too,
so we're really getting a good mix of experience
in this video, which I'm going to share with you.
[DING]
The dress code for your Zoom call
is the same as the dress code if you
were going to go to that meeting in person.
So if that means in person you were
wearing a suit jacket, that's what
you wear for your Zoom call.
I'm not saying that all day long in your house
you're wearing your suit, no.
I'm just saying, for the call you make the effort,
you put it on.
As soon as the call is done, you take it off.
So this is how we avoid doing things
like pajamas in the shot or tracksuit bottoms
if you need to get up for anything.
[DING]
We're going to talk about your setup, which is the equipment
that you're using.
Another word for that is your gear.
But this is more of a techie word, if you're into your tech,
and you're proud of it, then you might call it your gear,
your camera gear.
We've reached a point now where this working from home thing,
it may go on and on and on and on.
So there are displays of status you
could say through showing off.
Showing off is like, hey, look at this everyone look
what I've got--
your gear.
So this is doing things like having a boom stand
and the microphone in the shot.
I'm always quite impressed when I see someone's got that.
Anything that people are going to go, oh, wow,
you've invested some money, is going to make you look good.
[DING]
I know this doesn't apply to any of you,
but I want to talk to you about an internet slang word, which
is called boomer tech.
This is a word you would use to describe anyone who's
having irritating tech problems because they don't know how
to use it, and it's a bit annoying
because these are easy things that they should know.
So all kinds of boomer tech problems are just unacceptable.
Go and watch a few 'how to videos' on it,
and learn how to do it before coming in the Zoom call
and being embarrassing like that.
So this is a derogatory word.
It's a kind of insult. So you would never
say this to someone directly.
Oh, you're being boomer tech or that's boomer tech,
but you would think it.
It's different if your internet connection goes off,
even if your computer freezes.
Unfortunately, that sort of stuff does happen on Zoom.
It's not always your fault, and it's
irritating that it happens, but we are not talking here
about your own personal failure of being
able to use the technology.
OK, so let's go on to manners now.
Let me just say before I talk about this, don't
be oversensitive because some of you might say,
oh, I can't help it.
I'm going to talk about some pet peeves here.
This is a word for those small things
that are annoying to you.
And we can say, oh, my pet peeve is
when people have really poor sound quality,
it's uncomfortable to listen to, or there's
lots of background noise in the room, traffic noise.
That's probably my pet peeve, when you're having a call,
and you can hear someone else's really loud traffic noise.
Not everything here is a pet peeve of mine.
I don't get irritated that easily.
It's just examples of things that could be irritating
or at least undesirable.
So let's go through them.
I already mentioned sound.
Do what you can to improve the sound in your room.
This might be something simple like closing the windows so you
don't hear the traffic noise or closing
the door so you don't hear the other humans
in the other rooms.
This might also be generally improving
the acoustics of the room.
That's how the sound echoes in the space.
So if you got lots of hard surfaces,
you might want to get some cushions
in there, even some blankets that
can absorb the sound because it will
make you sound so much better if your room has decent acoustics.
Let's talk now about pets.
I've put cat there because I've got a cat.
My cat, he has to be shut out of the room
because you know what cats do?
They want your attention.
They want to go on the keyboard.
And also my cat bites.
So I can't be on a call, and then
having my cat bite me on the leg.
Can you imagine?
So pets have to go outside.
This is a boundary's issue.
Because my cat doesn't like being put out of the room.
Well anyway, it's tough.
You just have to do it.
It's part of your work.
You can't have your pet in your office with you, can you?
So this is the way it has to be.
This is a sensitive one, OK, because now we're
going to talk about kids.
I've got the kid here like that because kids--
how I've seen it on Zoom, kids will always
be trying to get the attention.
Even if they're not participating in that call,
they'll be doing stuff, and they'll be curious.
So this is a sensitive part because people
are going to say I can't help it, I've got my kids at home.
Well, also things like babies crying.
If it's a group call, that's quite bad form
because the noise is going to disrupt other people, OK.
There I've said it.
I'm saying this just for the benefit
of people who maybe didn't realize how
this seems, how this goes down.
I know I'm going to get reaction from that, but there you go.
Now let's talk about food and drink.
Don't drink anything apart from water or a basic drink
like a tea or a coffee.
Even a tea or a coffee is slightly rude.
I've got to admit, not saying I never do it.
I do it sometimes, but I only do it if I'm relaxed.
Eating anything is impolite, even a little sweet thing, even
a little mint, even some chewing gum, no,
not while you're on the call.
Even a biscuit, all of it is bad.
If you must do something like that, at least
turn your camera off.
If you're in a group call, turn off your camera for a sec.
Now this is to show there's a wider array of behaviors
that people might do on Zoom calls that they think--
this is in group classes, that they think is fine,
or maybe they think no one's noticing what they're doing.
But it could be things like putting on makeup,
doing your nails, doing your hair or whatever.
And also this is a tip for you.
If you are participating in the call,
have an emergency tissue around, a tissue box just in case
because you never know if you might need to sneeze.
And if you do need to sneeze and you can't turn the camera off
quickly, at least duck out of the view.
You don't want people seeing that.
And I would also give another tip
about sound, which is in a group class when you're not speaking,
mute yourself because that's going
to create the best atmosphere in terms
of the sound in the whole core.
It's really bad manners if your sound of your typing and your
doing stuff is interfering on the listening
experience of other people.
So there you go, I hope this wasn't too controversial
or is going to get me into trouble.
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Thank you so much for watching, and I hope you join me
again soon for another video.
I'll see you then, bye.