The ghosts of calls gone by...

It’s been almost 2 years since I last joined or hosted a teleconference. In fact, I recently had a revelation about my phone bill (I’m one of those who rarely looks at it), whereby I thought “why am I still on such a high plan?”

It’s been almost 2 years since I last joined or hosted a teleconference. In fact, I recently had a revelation about my phone bill (I’m one of those who rarely looks at it), whereby I thought “why am I still on such a high plan?”

One of the major shifts in work communication came about due to the pandemic — the rapid transition from teleconferencing to video conferencing. Whilst video conferencing was starting to gain momentum prior to February 2020, with a lot of workforces suddenly shifting to working remote, the popularity of video exploded. Zoom stock anyone!

I’ll admit that I wasn’t a huge fan of video conferencing prior to the pandemic, mostly because I was guilty of being a number 1 type attendee. My opinion quickly changed however once I had totally committed to the medium, and realized the positives far outweighed the negatives when compared to teleconferencing. The biggest benefits I’ve experienced so far are:

• Better attention from all attendees
• Being able to see other people’s body language and reactions
• The ability to share a screen or presentation
• Far easier to join on any device

Now that there has been such a huge adoption of video conferencing products, I can’t see that we’ll ever go back to the ‘old telecon days’ anytime soon. So much like rotary dial telephones, in honor of what is to become a communication relic of the past, here are 4 types of teleconference personalities that are now somewhat gone - but definitely not forgotten:

1. The Multitasker - yes, this person still exists on video conference calls, but not the extent of teleconference. At the very least they’ll pretend to be paying attention. “I’m sorry can you repeat, I missed that last (…25 mins of the call) question”
2. The Non-Muter - this person also still exists on video calls; however we can now mute them! No matter how many conference calls they’ve been on in their life, or how many times they’ve been asked to put themselves on mute; as sure as the sun rises in the east, they’ll forget to mute themselves on the very next call. “I’ll have a blueberry muffin and large coffee thanks” You’re not muted again Steve…
3. The Ghost - they were invited to the call, they accepted the invite, and they even announced their attendance at the beginning of the call. Now that they’ve been asked a question… they’ve vanished into thin air!
4. The Anti-hacker - you could’ve sent them the dial-in details by telegram, skywriter, carrier pigeon, emailed them in 140-point font; for reasons only known to them, they were still unable to master the art of dialing a phone number AND entering an access code. “Sorry I was 47 mins late; I was having trouble dialing in”