Getting Ready For That Video Call

I know the Internet has been rife with hints for taking video calls from home for the last few months as people work from home during the course of the COVID-19 shutdowns and possibly beyond as their employers realize, “Hey, why were we paying rent on office space again?” But the Wall Street Journal this week, on July 12, 2020, published Seven Rules of Zoom Meeting Etiquette From the Pros.

Although I am not proclaiming myself as an expert on either etiquette or Zoom calls, I have worked remotely for over a decade and have participated in enough video calls to know that in addition to the newly normalized etiquette, many people could benefit from learning or remembering some pointers about preparing for the call itself. So I’ll delve into a few of them here.

Make Sure You Have The Right Software and URL

Given the proliferation of video conferencing solutions, you need to make sure you’ve got the correct URL in the meeting invitation, and that you’re prepared with that software. Even though Zoom gets a lot of press, not everyone uses it. If you’re working for a small company with looser restrictions on technology, you might find that different team members prefer different videoconferencing tools. A client I recently worked for transitioned gradually from Skype to Microsoft Teams, so meetings during the transition period could be in either depending upon the organizer.

Review the meeting invitation to make sure which tool you need as more than one might be indicated, such as if the organizer has something listed in her signature that is not where the meeting actually will occur. I was once invited to a meeting where the invitation had no fewer than three different conferencing tools (Skype, Google Hangouts, and a phone bridge). I joined the Skype call first as that was our usual default. I waited a couple of minutes in case other people were running later. I then tried the Google Hangouts link, and I got signed into Google a minute or two later, but everyone else was conducting business over the phone bridge—which, in my hasty glance, looked like the dial-in number for a video conference. By the time I got connected and typed in the long passcode, the meeting was almost over.

Be Early for the Call

One of the Wall Street Journal experts’ rules mentions being on time; however, if it’s possible, you should actually begin preparing for your call—at least the technical part of it—ten minutes or more before the call begins (if you’re presenting or actively participating in the call, I know you’ve started preparing for the content of the call much earlier).

Use that time to ensure that you’re set up correctly for the call. Try to connect to the call to make sure that you don’t need any software updates or downloads to enter the meeting and that you have the proper credentials. Clicking the I Forgot My Password link at the top of the hour and waiting as the password reset link slowly makes its way to your inbox will surely make you late (remember to look in your Junk Email folder).

Test Your Equipment

Most videoconferencing software allows you to test your microphone and camera before connecting with the other callers. Take full advantage to make sure that your current web camera setup works with the particular software. 

Even if you test your setup outside the context of the video conferencing software, you might find some discrepancies once you’re running this program or that program. I have a nice recording microphone that I like to use not only because it’s a nice recording microphone, but it has a hard on/off switch which I like to use instead of the videoconferencing software’s mute button. Once, when connecting to one of the lesser-known videoconferencing products, I found that the microphone didn’t work—and I was glad I discovered it several minutes before the meeting instead of several minutes into the meeting when I had something to contribute.

Testing your microphone before the call will also let you make sure that your microphone is angled to pick up your voice as clearly as possible. If you’ve got your laptop plugged into a bigger monitor or on a docking station at the far end of the desk, the people you’re talking to might have trouble understanding you. Even though they might not like what you’ve got to say—I work in software quality assurance, and that often happens—you should ensure they can hear your report.

Adjust Your Camera and Framing

Before I even begin connecting to the call and testing the microphone, I like to run the Web camera software on my computer to make any adjustments to its position, the lighting, and more importantly, the background.

Of course, if you’re using a green screen or backdrop, you might not have to worry about this. However, given your camera’s position in your office or workspace, you might need to angle the camera a little differently for the best impression for your audience. For example, on a more formal call, a backdrop of your sword collection might be a little intimidating where your bookshelves in the background might better convey a learned, studious message.

Also, I also adjust my desk lamp for the best effect. You don’t want your face in the shadows or gleaming with the reflected light.

Find the Mute Button

The etiquette experts don’t mention that you should mute your microphone unless you have something to say, but you should spend most of your call with a closed microphone (where you have muted it). Many videoconferencing packages, the best in my opinion, actually connect you with the microphone muted. So that means you will probably need to click a software button to speak, and if you’re asked a question, you should click that button quickly. You need to know where it is.

Each Web conferencing solution puts its mute button in a different position—left side of the screen, top of the screen, in the middle of the bottom, and sometimes I think they move it around just to mess with me—and uses a slightly different icon for it. Before the actual call begins, you’ll want to make sure you know where that button is so that you can contribute at a moment’s notice.

When I cannot use my microphone and its hard switch, I also like to position my mouse cursor very near the mute button for the call so that I can move that pointer a very short distance when it comes time to speak. I don’t put the mouse pointer directly over it, and I make sure that I don’t set keyboard focus to the button, because I don’t want a cat or my wandering hands to accidentally open my microphone. It’s not that I talk to myself during meetings that disturbs my co-workers—it’s that I talk to myself in different voices.

Let Everyone Know You’re On The Call

The Wall Street Journal article says it’s good etiquette to close the office door to minimize interruptions from your roommates or family. I not only close my office door, but I let everyone in the household know I’m going on a call. I even spent a couple dollars on a red LED light to turn on when I’m “on the air.”

To be honest, my preferred method of saying, “Moooooo-om, I’m ON THE PHONE!” when background noise trickled into my calls was probably less professional than my teammates and clients preferred.

As video conferencing continues to proliferate, eventually all of this should become second nature to everyone, but technical preparation is as important as etiquette. Your co-workers, bosses, and clients won’t necessarily notice the extra time and effort you put into being ready, but, like quality in software itself (I’m a software tester, so of course I’d use this metaphor), your co-workers, bosses, and clients will notice if you have trouble with starting your Zoom call on time or if you’ve got a messy room behind you.

 (Header image via Pixabay.)