Zoom …. zoom …. used to be the realm of superheros, but now apparently we’re all Zooming around with friends and family as well as colleagues!
In my own family, my enterprising son-in-law started up a family Quiz on Sunday evenings. Three generations, spread across different parts of the country logged into Zoom to wave at each other, talk over each other and share what we were doing during lock-down. For most of us that was ‘not much’ although a fair amount of decorating, gardening, and de-cluttering was taking place. The teenagers joined in the quiz sometimes, and contributed their music knowledge – usually more up to date with recent (as in the last few years) than the grandparent generation. Each week someone volunteered to create and host the next week’s quiz, so the flavour varied quite a bit, according to the preference of the quiz masters.
We had as many as twelve different households zooming for the quiz some weeks and it became a regular sociable interlude in our disconnected lives.
Many businesses have used Zoom for formal meetings, but some enlightened managers are recognising that social interaction is an important part of most people’s working lives, and it’s missing for many of those Working From Home. Leaving the Zoom screen open all day so that people can look up from their desk and chat with colleagues just as they might in the office works for some. Others are having a ‘hello’ Zoom at the beginning of the day to have the kind of chats which would previously have taken place over the coffee machine on arrival at the office. These are just a couple of ways of compensating for not actually being together in one space. There are many others, but it’s really important that managers genuinely implement them to enhance social, informal interactions and not as a way to monitor staff. That does happen.
What’s your experience of remote get-togethers over Zoom or other virtual means? Do you feel more connected to your colleagues? How easy do you find it to interact during such encounters? I’d love to hear about your virtual adventures in communication!
