Everybody agrees that working from home and working remotely during COVID-19 has changed the game for business.
And while I see many positives in this, I also believe that some people are using it as an excuse to overlook simple business meeting etiquette.
Recently I had a Zoom meeting with an external provider looking to sell their system for use across our 110 childcare services. This was a first pitch meeting with people we’d never met.
The meeting had been on my calendar for a couple of weeks, I set aside the time, ensured I had a quiet location organised with my door closed and camera on ready to start building a potential new working partnership.
The meeting was abandoned after five minutes.
The sales presenter was late to the meeting and his camera was off. His sound was patchy, and there was a lot of background noise, so even when the microphone did work, we still couldn’t hear him.
Given we’d never met him, I expected to be able to see who I was talking to, to build some rapport before sharing our sensitive business information. And as this was new business, it was also essential to be able to hear his pitch.
We questioned the situation. He explained to us that he was on a train, travelling to another meeting, attempting to hold our meeting en route.
After stopping the meeting early, we received an email saying he was sorry for the situation, but he had another meeting to get to, so it was unavoidable. Or was it?
To my mind, conducting a sales call on a noisy train can always be avoided, and I’d argue that if you follow these five meeting etiquette tips, it’s simple:
- Don’t book a video meeting that clashes with your transit time to another meeting.
- Book meetings far enough apart to allow for travel time and bathroom breaks.
- If it absolutely can’t be avoided, travel to your in-person meeting earlier, find a quiet, private space and conduct your video meeting at the location of your in-person meeting, then attend the in-person meeting after.
- If there really isn’t time, make the in-person meeting a video meeting as well.
- Change your schedule to make both meetings in-person, allowing the usual travel time in-between.
This whole meeting experience left my company feeling like we weren’t a high priority because it was a remote meeting. Had the meeting been in-person, would the approach have been more considered?
I saw a social media post recently that showed a mother cooking dinner at 4.30 pm, with her computer at the stove, on a work meeting, camera and microphone off, saying how great flexible work was because she could start dinner at 4.30 pm. How she thought she could actively engage in that meeting is beyond me. How would she turn on her mic to contribute without burning herself or disturbing the group? I’m sure the people in her meeting felt a lot like I felt, a very low priority.
If we want to continue working remotely, we need to maintain quality communication and business etiquette and prioritise the interactions we have each day, giving each other the common courtesy we deserve.
I don’t think it’s too much to ask during a meeting to give someone your full attention, properly engage with them, be ready to contribute your ideas and ensure that there are no distractions at either end.
If we were all sitting in a meeting room together this would be the expectation, so surely, it’s the minimum standard for remote meetings, too?
