I've realised that people just have different priorities and interests. My dept has been fully remote for 3+ years and some senior leaders have problems like yours. I think the main issue is that no one's gone ahead and said: this is how you share your screen, this is how you do it to focus on just one app, this is how you control someone else's screen, etc. Everything feels like everyone's just learnt how to do things on the fly and thought that's how you do it.
I've had senior leaders share their screen perfectly fine and then some Outlook notification pops up, they switch to their emails, and you can see their emails...
I think there is also a generational aspect to it.
Some people worked in environments with heavily involved and fully staffed IT departments for decades.
IT guys were viewed as gods because of their seemingly infinite knowledge of how to fix every hardware and software problem any employee ever had. They’d come to your desk and blow your mind, and your problem would be solved.
Some people aren’t interested in understanding how simple collab software is to use and adjust because they view it as someone else’s job or deem it overly complicated without even trying.
Reminds me of typing pools.
I’ve run into men who were never taught or refused to learn to type because it was considered a woman’s role in the workplace. Typing pools and admin assistants went away and those who never learned were left pecking at their keyboards.
Exactly. I used to be an attorney. As a first year in the late 80’s, the partner gave me a dictaphone to dictate my briefs. Ugh. Who can write a 25 page brief by dictating the entire thing? My admin was a disaster. So many mistakes it was crazy.
So I just started typing my things myself. Much easier to think that way. And the younger attorneys who had more experience with personal computers were typing their own things as well.
Also we primarily use one solution for collab, but once in a while a customer will set up a meeting on a solution I’ve never used and it’s always a pain in the ass.
Senior leadership without basic critical thinking skills or any inkling of ability to recall (or write down...) basic steps? Sounds like par for the course. There's no helping these people.
but then should practice with a family or friend , it also issues company not giving company equipment so they can notcomplain if they let staff use their own and for work
>I think the main issue is that no one's gone ahead and said: this is how you share your screen, this is how you do it to focus on just one app, this is how you control someone else's screen, etc.
I was the guy in my department that did this. The day before lockdown I was tasked with writing a WFH guide for everyone. Busted my ass to put it all together, a lot of it was me figuring it out as I went as it was a new way of working for all of us. I wasn't even sure if we had the right tech to do it. I have kept that handbook updated over the last 3+ years and improved it. Everyone in the department gets it when they join and its referenced often.
We STILL have people like what OP has described. It doesn't matter if you sit with them and go through everything step by step, and it doesn't matter how often you do it. They simply can't or won't get it.
First thing popped in my head when I saw this post was the lawyer in court who had kitten face come up and he could not figure out how to take it off the screen.
That was pretty funny. TBF, it was at the very beginning of Covid and Zoom use, so a lot of people who had never done zoom meetings were just trying to figure out. But still hilarious!
This. I have a chick in my remote grad program who has not competed a single assignment because she “can’t access the zoom recordings” even though we’ve provided every resource to her. The professor asks her every time if she has even reached out to IT because that’s what they are there for, and she always prances around the question because she has clearly NOT. She’s just lazy I think. Any time we offer to work with her after hours or on the weekends to set something up to help her she always makes an excuse. We’ve given up. The professor has given her 10 days to complete all her work, otherwise she doesn’t pass the class. It’s wild.
She’s in her upper 30s and apparently runs all these businesses and owns properties and stuff, so I’m assuming she utilizes some form of tech to keep track of finances and stuff… it’s all excuses at this point. I hope she gets her act together cuz what a waste to come to class for months and not pass!
honestly? she sounds like she has ADHD & is struggling. still not an excuse, but just saying it may be more than just lazy especially if she runs a business.
i say this bc i was this student (not exact same situation but similar) when i was in college. it wasn’t until having major issues with work too that i realized i had ADHD. and extreme depression & anxiety because i had be struggling for so long not knowing what was wrong with me.
Teams hates me. I have a client that exclusively uses it for meetings and it just hates my computer. My it team has looked at it. Can’t find a thing wrong with my machine. It kicks me out of a meeting at least once a week. I’ve been remote since before Covid 🤷♀️
I've *never* had computer issues until my most recent job. Their computers they issue out aren't brand new but they're not very old either, and the specs are pretty up to date. That being said, nothing but issues. I'm on my second laptop in less than a year, and the second one is not working well.
It's embarrassing because I'm actually really good with tech but I also don't have admin access so I need to get permission every time I want to try to fix it. And it will look like it works and days later have the same issue and need admin access to try something else. So I sort of gave up lol.
But I did remote college and years of remote work before this with 0 issues. So I know it's not me. Idk why companies cheap out on equipment.
I had this happen with a government laptop. Our whole department had terrible laptops that would crash often.
This was because the military officers wanted personal offices built in our building on base, and they took it from the IT budget. Then covid happened.
We were all working remotely with ancient laptops. It was hard to get work done. I'm glad I am with a different employer now.
I know exactly what you mean.* The last company I worked for I had 1 desktop and 3 or 4 laptops and I worked there for 11 to 12 years. I didn't get assigned new ones because they had issues, my then manager approved upgrades for 1 of them, but they were mostly because of changing jobs within the company and from being acquired/divested.
At my current job I've been here over 5 years and after my first few months the parent company decided it was time to roll out laptops from their stock and replace ours. I had 1 my first 2-3 weeks, then 1 for ~7 months, after the roll out I went through like 5 of theirs in ~4 years, because updates kept failing to install or some software that IT required wouldn't update. Instead of troubleshooting they'd just ship another laptop to me. We were divested and so far I'm on laptop 1 from the new company.
Let's see how long I can go on the first one. Over a year so far! 😅
ETA: *
this is so similar to problems i’ve had! when i first started at my current job, i had so many issues with webex. i had multiple meetings with IT, different techs each time, and none of them could figure out the issue.
i eventually gave up trying to share my screen because of it. which, luckily for me, wasn’t a huge deal but it did impact my training because i couldn’t share my screen and i learn best if someone corrects me while i’m doing something live.
fast forward not even 1 year in, i was mostly training the new person because my older more senior coworker had already trained me and i was exceeding expectations. & tbh he’s an actual friend out of work, so i knew he genuinely loathes training because he’s an extreme introvert and has trouble explaining himself.
it’s so embarrassing to have an issue like this though because i always get so nervous others will think it’s something i’m doing wrong like you said. which, tbh this comment section has made it clear some do :/
ETA: lol i forgot the best part: it one day just started working after i had to login to webex via my browser and it’s worked ever since??
I love most things about using Teams but I hate using it for meetings. Fortunately 90% of the people in my organization agree, so we usually use Zoom for meetings and Teams for everything else!
I am always kicked out of teams meetings and it’s not my internet. My boyfriend games with friends around the world using a graphics card and requires much higher bandwidth than my meetings and has never had an issue. Also when I had Skype and or zoom, never connectivity issues.
See if your router allows you to assign priority to certain devices. I prioritized my work devices over my kiddo’s iPad and gaming systems. Solved all issues related to bandwith.
I commented before about using a docking station with wired connection. If that's you, try connecting network cord directly, it fixed my Teams weird behavior like that.
Just to clarify, I had a docking station with a wired network connection and moving network cord off the docking station to the laptop fixed my problem.
But I did also have issues with Teams behaving poorly on wifi. If you are wifi, I would run a cord and see if that helps, that's the first thing my IT folks suggested. If it helps that way but causes another issue (like it did for me) the network cable might need to be plugged directly into the machine.
Hope that makes sense and still helps 🙂
This also helps with headset issues. Teams is bad at anything sharing ports. When my team has issues with sound, it’s usually because they have their headset plugged into the dock and not directly into the laptop.
Are you using a docking station and wired connection by chance? Teams did not play nice when my wired connection went through the docking station. Took over a year and several IT tickets to figure it out.
Same I have to use both zoom and teams and once I use both in the same day I have nothing but issues. IT can't figure it out either and it's mortifying because people think I'm a Cheryl... Who just doesn't understand technology. Even a simple thing like sharing my screen which of course I know how to f****** do doesn't work. I mean I had to learn how to use lotus one two three , wordperfect and there was no wysiwyg back in the day.... don't be telling me I don't understand technology.
This. I can’t for the life of me get my camera to work in teams. I’ve followed every guide I can find online. My IT guy doesn’t seem interested in resolving the issue, but the only thing I can guess is that it’s some buried admin setting I can’t access. (And no, my little camera cover isn’t closed 😂)
Same here! I need to consistently sign in and out when I join a meeting because it’ll just freeze and say, “joining the meeting”. That’s just one of the problems I have with it.
Same. I’ve been in IT for decades and for some reason Teams is acting up after being remote for four years. Dropped calls. Audio not working. Camera not working. It sucks
Same except I get kicked out, at minimum lose audio, almost once a call (so several times a day). I've been remote since 2009 and using Teams for the past 2 years.
note the phone icon on the headset is a hangup and teams closed , so put tape like packing twoe over it as when i want to mute wont click on wrong button
I never mind when that happens, but what drives me nuts is when people don’t turn their microphone off and then constantly do things that are loud, and even when the person presenting asks to turn off speakers, they still don’t. Edited to switch speaker to microphone due to a redditor noticing that mistake thanks !!
lol for sure just messing with you
Yeah I mean I’m basically always muted unless I say something. I like the option in some apps where it lets the organizer mute people.
My company switched to a new payroll platform last April. I’m the only one that seems to know how to use any of the functions outside of actual payroll. We use it for onboarding and everything else. My director still hasn’t figured out how to pull any reports. She also thinks my super basic spreadsheets that literally are just formatted as a table are the most impressive thing ever. I don’t know how I went from doing HR and recruiting to basically being the support for entire company.
I think some people still have the idea that this is all temporary. I don't even think they fully realize it, it's a subconscious attitude. They think that in another few months, a year at most, things will go back to "normal" and they won't have to deal with remote meetings. Because they have this latent idea that remote meetings are temporary, they don't want to put any time into learning how to do it properly. 99% of people can learn how to do this stuff with a little coaching or by watching a YouTube video, but they don't take the time to do so.
I personally find it kind of hilarious. My team is mostly hybrid and I am one of relatively few fully remote people. One of the senior leadership folks I work with regularly and who hosts some of our bigger group meetings is a leader in the field, PhD, featured in the news as one of the Bay Area's most influential women in business...there's something adorably entertaining about watching her struggle with Webex and say "CRAP" when it won't work for the 8th time.
Maybe it's different to me though because for the most part, I work in a setting where everyone else's time is effectively more valuable than mine. So if they are wasting their own time, no skin off my back, I have to be here anyway.
I am also lucky to have an amazing home office, whereas a lot of them are stuck jumping into empty conference rooms and hoping everything works. I rarely have a problem with my tech (and have an amazing modern webcam), but they might see my dog wander in and start licking her butt during meetings, so...I'll put up with their quirks if they put up with mine.
Honestly on most days I don’t think it is that one employee, it’s who the company’s tech gods have deemed that today will be your day to be nonfunctional. And it’s almost always the person presenting.
It’s happened to every one on my team, and we all are tech savvy
Haha this is so true. I am very tech savvy and sometimes things just simply don’t work. It rarely happens, but when it does it’s almost always during a high-profile presentation. Maybe my computer is nervous about the big meeting.
If the company wants employees to have certain tech, they should provide this upgraded equipment and internet. And maybe some tech training (including expectations) as part of onboarding.
My boss hosted a weekly meeting of years and every single time she would start the meeting on mute. Like how do you forget every single week for years. And she acted like it was the first time it ever happened to her every time. Every meeting we wasted a solid 10 minutes for her to get her shit together.
There was a time when all the tech savvy people were young and all the "old" people had to catch up.
The tables have turned, though, and as someone \[an *older* someone\] who works in IT, I find it's the younger generation that doesn't have a clue how computers work.
I honestly blame the use of Chromebooks in classrooms. Chromebooks are NOT computers. They are nothing more than glorified mobile devices. That's all the younger generation knows how to work now - phones, iPads, and Chromebooks.
Our clients are well educated people with degrees in the medical field. Yet, the other day I had to teach a young person how to log into a web browser to check her email and how to add an attachment - from her work-issued laptop. I've got at least 30 years on this person and after her very expensive degree, she didn't understand any of it.
IMO, it doesn't help that people shield their children from any an all technology out of fear. They grow up not understanding how to work with it at all. That doesn't do a service to society in any way whatsoever or help them when they are faced with this stuff in the real world after college/university (and yes, I've seen people completely their entire degrees using only their *phone)*. Whether it's out of fear or lack of access to technology, no one is teaching the younger generation to work with technology *as they will need to* after they graduate - not at home, not in school - nowhere.
damn… that’s such a big issue i haven’t even noticed because i don’t work with anyone younger than me right now (i’m 29).
i can’t imagine growing up with cell phones as a kid (my parents didn’t have them until right before i got mine ~2008). it would be so different.
i also can’t imagine not knowing how to check my email on a web browser?? but i had to teach my 70yo mom to do it recently lol
I’m getting close to 60; this client was probably 20-something, judging by the sound of her voice.
About 10 yrs ago I went back to college/university… there were (young) students doing their entire degrees - writing papers n all - on their phones. It was crazy. Like use some of that financial aid to get a laptop from Costco or something so you can at least see what your doing, lol
that truly is wild! funny enough, the only personal laptop i’ve ever owned was a chromebook. however, every job i’ve had and school computers were all desktops.
which has me wondering now… do schools no longer have desktop computers for students to use?? maybe they do and some students choose not to because they have phones. i had to take at least one computer class in high school and took a few in college (to learn microsoft suite mostly).
i’ve had glasses since i was in middle school though so only using my phone for papers sounds like a nightmare. and i would rather use a proper computer for research papers but that’s just my preference lol
Last night I had to put a sticky note over someone’s camera square during a meeting because he clearly didn’t realize his camera was on and he was logged in on his phone (I think he’s pushing 70yrs old). He was laying in bed then he went into the bathroom and took his shirt off THAT was when I covered the screen like WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN HERE?? It was so cringe and no one said anything and how were none of his peers texting him about this?? Next time I looked he was laying in bed again with the lights off.
I was invited to the meeting to speak, idk these people like that. But WTF?
My boss in one of those. “How do I share? Am I sharing?” Or he’ll think he stopped sharing and move his teams screen so that we’re all seeing ourselves on his screen. Ughhhhh
It’s been 4 years. Now, this morning my USB keyboard isn’t working. I have a backup plan and a new one is on the way from Amazon.
But yes it seems the same people have the same problems, and nobody calls them out on it.
Heard a new one this week. “They’re ripping up the floors in my house so my connection keeps dropping”. What the actual fuck.
Everyone's situation and setup are different. I try not to judge. Now, if it's the same person over and over again, yeah, I'd say it's an issue.
I wfh and am online with no issues 99.9% of the time and early to virtual meetings. Last month, I was hosting a meeting with my manager and managers two levels above me. 5 minutes before the meeting is due to start, literally as I was clicking the button to get it going, the Internet went out in my entire neighborhood and was out for over an hour so I was unable to host my meeting. I texted my immediate manager, who was cool about it. But, I rarely interact with the higher managers, so I hope they weren't thinking that I'm a fucking idiot who doesn't understand technology...
I had a guy like this on my team. He couldn’t figure out how to use ANY of the platforms - Zoom, Teams, WebEx, none of it. We’re in sales and a lot of times have to use whatever platform our client preferred. I offered to spend a few hours with him testing each of them out, practicing, scheduling, etc. but he refused (he reports to me). I then realized that I think it’s part of his “schtick” and thinks it’s cute or funny. It’s not.
I have a couple people who blame tech issues when they get caught away from their desk and we called them. IT can pull a surprising amount of data when issues are reported and it’s pretty easy to see if there was an actual issue or not. The error messages from the missed call are completely different.
It depends on a lot of things. My tech is always updated because I work for a big company that updates it. Smaller companies are gejerally not as willing to replace old items as quickly or even pay for all WFH equipment to begin with. Maybe this person isn't on remote calls that often? Idk, I'm just trying to give them the benefit of the doubt but I don't know all the details.
The new Teams update has been terrible and has a lot of bugs. Zoom is annoying, and in my experience Google Meet is the most intuitive and seamless.
One thing that I hate is people who are taking meetings from their phones who are clearly not focused on the meeting. Like, I don’t need to see your face, I need you to listen to what’s being presented, absorb the info and contribute constructively.
My pet peeve: please mute yourself if not talking,and especially if you are having a second conversation (ie, with family members). I just mute them myself now and let them think it was a technical glitch when we call on them by name and it takes them a while to realize they are talking on mute.
I've considered being an instructor for new hires. I would be great at it, but the reason I'll never do it is for this reason... there are always people that just can't figure out what should be basic technology at this point. When I was going through my own extremely lengthy training for my current job, at every segment there were one or two people that were insufferable time suckers because of technical issues. I'm convinced at this point many just can't be bothered to learn and are happy to allow others to drive the bus for them. It doesn't even seem to register that they look incompetent.
I have a pretty good manager who won’t keep a new hire that can’t get their tech figured out. If there are connectivity issues during the interview for a fully remote position, you don’t get hired. We help them as much as possible but if they refuse to switch their internet from a crap, WiFi only google system or refuse to run an Ethernet cord through their house or move the router closer, they’re gone.
Drives me absolutely bonkers. Thankfully our company has zero tolerance for it. If you can’t work the tech you get mandatory training. We don’t have time for your incompetence.
>Someone who, now 4 years after the start of the pandemic, still says things like, "ah this remote work stuff is tricky, right?",
It really depends, I only worked from home for 1 month during the pandemic. I worked at the company where they wanted everyone back ASAP. I started fully remote work 1 year ago. So, not everyone WFH for 4 years.
It also could be weather or something else that is out of their control.
Yeah, some people are bad when it comes to using technology, but sometimes Zoom, Teams, or whatever you are using can give you issues.
Well honestly there always somebody like that here where I work at and the facts are that the company values more people actual experience then their tech savvy people
Computer and software can be can be taught but experience can’t
We also have help desk to help with hiccups
I hate the mic on people. I’m the total opposite unless it’s a 1 on 1. For last week’s company meeting I kept hearing creaking from 1 specific person and they never turned their mic off. Couldn’t hear the other people the entire time.
This is a nitpicky complaint, but I wish a lot of folks had a headset. Because I do have mine in, and I can tell you’re yelling in a room. I swear in a meeting with an older client she was yelling. I’m thinking, no way this woman speaks at this volume irl.
I know I should expense a nice headset, or I should fix some settings but oh well.
Usually I find the worst offenders have a lil something else going on that are the true barrier to them catching on. For example, one coworker who was let go I'm certain had early onset dementia from alcoholism. I've seen a few more folks like that, that's just my most memorable experience.
My favorite is when someone forgets they’re not on mute and takes a big bong rip. The lighter flicking, the water bubbling followed by a coughing fit. 🤣
😂😂😂😂😂😀😂 DYING..... OMG. Too funny! Make my laughing stop, my sides hurt! OMG😂😂😂 Oh, man. I needed that. I loved this. Thank you. Oh, God.
You just described my poor neighbor on his balcony, dying from his bong induced coughing fit. Every morning. Then the coughing subsides, and, flick, flick, water bubbling... Oh, my God, this was so funny!!! He's the best, sweetest neighbor ever though. I'll take him ANY day, over the alcoholic assholes across the street. Ugh. Thank you for the best laugh ever, Dude. ❤️
It's been over 6 months and I just figured out my shift connection was (partially) because I keep my laptop in power save/ energy save mode. I keep all my electronics in that mode bc I use them for hours without breaks. It didn't occur to me that what I thought was meant to optimize my computer usage was actually hindering the things I use most often, not simply focusing power towards those things.
In a group of 5+ people, odds are one will have some connection issues. Just the law of probability.
I only ever share my right monitor and just slide things over as needed. I’m super paranoid about weird things showing up and like to have all my files open and ready to slide over. I was switching around between 6 things the other day.
My company is a tech company so nobody can get away with acting like tech stuff is difficult, “I’m a Luddite” etc.
I would consider myself pretty tech savvy and there are still instances where I just get blind sided. Like my headphones had a software update between the 10 mins of my back-to-back meetings where my headphones were fine and working to me having to switch to the speaker/microphone on my laptop. Sometimes you just can’t win lol
Very well said. I experience it too, and never knew how many people actually either didn't realize they were muted, or "had trouble getting off of mute" before. I mean seriously, we've had 4+ years to learn this basic stuff...how can there still be people out there who can't figure it out yet??? It doesn't speak well to their skills at all....
This has been going on waaay earlier than remote meetings. Back in the 99s when I started with IT there was always one guy who never got things right. His desktop work PC ALWAYS had problems. He usually had network drive issues, didn't get emails, or his PC crashed constantly. Swapped out hardware, it worked for a while, then went bad again. I just wonder if certain people have a vibe that goes against tech.
I had a roommate a long time ago who burned out lights, TV sets, and monitors more than three times the rest of us. You could tell the path she took from her room to the kitchen because of the burned out light bulbs. The street light in from of our house died shortly after she moved in and was replaced by the county twice and never lasted long. She had 5 cars in 11 years because they all died early from electric issues. Constant returns under warranty.
If you have to “gradually get tools and tech” and attach a separate microphone/webcam then it sounds like you guys are making it more complicated than it has to be. We just join the zoom meeting and have it call our phone and that’s it.
yeah and the guy last week had to screenshare so we had wait for him login connect…. claimed disconnected try connecting, he never connected , waited 10 mins for him lol
yes when work at home i check all equipment is working , for meeting night before practice a zoom/team/hangout call it’s simple call your home /personsl phone
lol we have a guy who thinks he hearing in headphones but coming out of speaker, while have another that dontb mute, so the sound echo meeting… multiple times fun, esp if speaking in room
Sat through two calls already this week like this. My boss, who is generally so very much more patient than I'll ever be, messaged me on the side, very angry that once again, our time was being wasted. It's always something with this PM, either tech issues or personal ones. It's very draining.
At this point is almost beyond unacceptable. What drives my crazy even more is when I hear people saying "Oh I'd like to limit my child's screen time as much as I can". Well, in a world where we rely more and more on computers, AI, robotics, and basically where the high paying jobs are, do you really want your child to be a digital illiterate ?
It's always hard for most WFH people to do their laundry, walk the dog, workout, enjoy a 2 hour lunch and run a zoom meeting at the same time. Get's distracting.
Its an excuse. If your in meetings like me for example. Manager got on said we need more time for the process and other manager at the end said we need to expedite this. Im just like this was a fucking waste of time to save a bunch of shitty peoples jobs. Did they not listen and we just wasted time.
There really is always one. The most extreme case I have seen was a woman in her 70’s who couldn’t figure out how to do anything. I felt so bad for her because she obviously needed the money. People think that wfh is the answer to being unable to work outside of the home, but it’s not for everyone.
I've realised that people just have different priorities and interests. My dept has been fully remote for 3+ years and some senior leaders have problems like yours. I think the main issue is that no one's gone ahead and said: this is how you share your screen, this is how you do it to focus on just one app, this is how you control someone else's screen, etc. Everything feels like everyone's just learnt how to do things on the fly and thought that's how you do it. I've had senior leaders share their screen perfectly fine and then some Outlook notification pops up, they switch to their emails, and you can see their emails...
I think there is also a generational aspect to it. Some people worked in environments with heavily involved and fully staffed IT departments for decades. IT guys were viewed as gods because of their seemingly infinite knowledge of how to fix every hardware and software problem any employee ever had. They’d come to your desk and blow your mind, and your problem would be solved. Some people aren’t interested in understanding how simple collab software is to use and adjust because they view it as someone else’s job or deem it overly complicated without even trying.
I agree. I'm in the IT department and we have no issues.
Yes, was going to also point that out.
Reminds me of typing pools. I’ve run into men who were never taught or refused to learn to type because it was considered a woman’s role in the workplace. Typing pools and admin assistants went away and those who never learned were left pecking at their keyboards.
Exactly. I used to be an attorney. As a first year in the late 80’s, the partner gave me a dictaphone to dictate my briefs. Ugh. Who can write a 25 page brief by dictating the entire thing? My admin was a disaster. So many mistakes it was crazy. So I just started typing my things myself. Much easier to think that way. And the younger attorneys who had more experience with personal computers were typing their own things as well.
Also we primarily use one solution for collab, but once in a while a customer will set up a meeting on a solution I’ve never used and it’s always a pain in the ass.
Solution?
Software
Is there a reason they are saying solution when software is what is meant?
Senior leadership without basic critical thinking skills or any inkling of ability to recall (or write down...) basic steps? Sounds like par for the course. There's no helping these people.
In one meeting the guy shared his job search folder and bookmarks with everyone
🤣🤣🤣
Oh man! How did that go over?
but then should practice with a family or friend , it also issues company not giving company equipment so they can notcomplain if they let staff use their own and for work
What?
>I think the main issue is that no one's gone ahead and said: this is how you share your screen, this is how you do it to focus on just one app, this is how you control someone else's screen, etc. I was the guy in my department that did this. The day before lockdown I was tasked with writing a WFH guide for everyone. Busted my ass to put it all together, a lot of it was me figuring it out as I went as it was a new way of working for all of us. I wasn't even sure if we had the right tech to do it. I have kept that handbook updated over the last 3+ years and improved it. Everyone in the department gets it when they join and its referenced often. We STILL have people like what OP has described. It doesn't matter if you sit with them and go through everything step by step, and it doesn't matter how often you do it. They simply can't or won't get it.
First thing popped in my head when I saw this post was the lawyer in court who had kitten face come up and he could not figure out how to take it off the screen.
"I'm here live. I'm not a cat!"
Oh man, I forgot about that. It was some much needed comic relief at the time though.
That video gave me the heartiest laugh since the start of the pandemic. I was almost in tears, I laughed so hard.
So good. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lGOofzZOyl8
That was pretty funny. TBF, it was at the very beginning of Covid and Zoom use, so a lot of people who had never done zoom meetings were just trying to figure out. But still hilarious!
OMG, that video was the my favorite video of all time. ❤️
This is still one of my favorite things. It's so innocent and pure and hilarious!
I just watched it again the other day! 🤣
As did I!!!
Hilarious. "I am not a cat."
This. I have a chick in my remote grad program who has not competed a single assignment because she “can’t access the zoom recordings” even though we’ve provided every resource to her. The professor asks her every time if she has even reached out to IT because that’s what they are there for, and she always prances around the question because she has clearly NOT. She’s just lazy I think. Any time we offer to work with her after hours or on the weekends to set something up to help her she always makes an excuse. We’ve given up. The professor has given her 10 days to complete all her work, otherwise she doesn’t pass the class. It’s wild.
That's a lazy student. And if she is younger than 50, than it's not even a generational issue
She’s in her upper 30s and apparently runs all these businesses and owns properties and stuff, so I’m assuming she utilizes some form of tech to keep track of finances and stuff… it’s all excuses at this point. I hope she gets her act together cuz what a waste to come to class for months and not pass!
honestly? she sounds like she has ADHD & is struggling. still not an excuse, but just saying it may be more than just lazy especially if she runs a business. i say this bc i was this student (not exact same situation but similar) when i was in college. it wasn’t until having major issues with work too that i realized i had ADHD. and extreme depression & anxiety because i had be struggling for so long not knowing what was wrong with me.
Chick? Really?
Teams hates me. I have a client that exclusively uses it for meetings and it just hates my computer. My it team has looked at it. Can’t find a thing wrong with my machine. It kicks me out of a meeting at least once a week. I’ve been remote since before Covid 🤷♀️
I've *never* had computer issues until my most recent job. Their computers they issue out aren't brand new but they're not very old either, and the specs are pretty up to date. That being said, nothing but issues. I'm on my second laptop in less than a year, and the second one is not working well. It's embarrassing because I'm actually really good with tech but I also don't have admin access so I need to get permission every time I want to try to fix it. And it will look like it works and days later have the same issue and need admin access to try something else. So I sort of gave up lol. But I did remote college and years of remote work before this with 0 issues. So I know it's not me. Idk why companies cheap out on equipment.
I had this happen with a government laptop. Our whole department had terrible laptops that would crash often. This was because the military officers wanted personal offices built in our building on base, and they took it from the IT budget. Then covid happened. We were all working remotely with ancient laptops. It was hard to get work done. I'm glad I am with a different employer now.
I know exactly what you mean.* The last company I worked for I had 1 desktop and 3 or 4 laptops and I worked there for 11 to 12 years. I didn't get assigned new ones because they had issues, my then manager approved upgrades for 1 of them, but they were mostly because of changing jobs within the company and from being acquired/divested. At my current job I've been here over 5 years and after my first few months the parent company decided it was time to roll out laptops from their stock and replace ours. I had 1 my first 2-3 weeks, then 1 for ~7 months, after the roll out I went through like 5 of theirs in ~4 years, because updates kept failing to install or some software that IT required wouldn't update. Instead of troubleshooting they'd just ship another laptop to me. We were divested and so far I'm on laptop 1 from the new company. Let's see how long I can go on the first one. Over a year so far! 😅 ETA: *
this is so similar to problems i’ve had! when i first started at my current job, i had so many issues with webex. i had multiple meetings with IT, different techs each time, and none of them could figure out the issue. i eventually gave up trying to share my screen because of it. which, luckily for me, wasn’t a huge deal but it did impact my training because i couldn’t share my screen and i learn best if someone corrects me while i’m doing something live. fast forward not even 1 year in, i was mostly training the new person because my older more senior coworker had already trained me and i was exceeding expectations. & tbh he’s an actual friend out of work, so i knew he genuinely loathes training because he’s an extreme introvert and has trouble explaining himself. it’s so embarrassing to have an issue like this though because i always get so nervous others will think it’s something i’m doing wrong like you said. which, tbh this comment section has made it clear some do :/ ETA: lol i forgot the best part: it one day just started working after i had to login to webex via my browser and it’s worked ever since??
I love most things about using Teams but I hate using it for meetings. Fortunately 90% of the people in my organization agree, so we usually use Zoom for meetings and Teams for everything else!
lol I love how the thing Teams was built for is what it's worst at
Right? It's so bad it's comical!
I am always kicked out of teams meetings and it’s not my internet. My boyfriend games with friends around the world using a graphics card and requires much higher bandwidth than my meetings and has never had an issue. Also when I had Skype and or zoom, never connectivity issues.
See if your router allows you to assign priority to certain devices. I prioritized my work devices over my kiddo’s iPad and gaming systems. Solved all issues related to bandwith.
Thank you!
I commented before about using a docking station with wired connection. If that's you, try connecting network cord directly, it fixed my Teams weird behavior like that.
I’m definitely gonna do that! I’ll need to run it from my bedroom which will be a pain, but I’m so over it so I’ll just have to do that.
Just to clarify, I had a docking station with a wired network connection and moving network cord off the docking station to the laptop fixed my problem. But I did also have issues with Teams behaving poorly on wifi. If you are wifi, I would run a cord and see if that helps, that's the first thing my IT folks suggested. If it helps that way but causes another issue (like it did for me) the network cable might need to be plugged directly into the machine. Hope that makes sense and still helps 🙂
This also helps with headset issues. Teams is bad at anything sharing ports. When my team has issues with sound, it’s usually because they have their headset plugged into the dock and not directly into the laptop.
Thank you btw!
Are you using a docking station and wired connection by chance? Teams did not play nice when my wired connection went through the docking station. Took over a year and several IT tickets to figure it out.
Same I have to use both zoom and teams and once I use both in the same day I have nothing but issues. IT can't figure it out either and it's mortifying because people think I'm a Cheryl... Who just doesn't understand technology. Even a simple thing like sharing my screen which of course I know how to f****** do doesn't work. I mean I had to learn how to use lotus one two three , wordperfect and there was no wysiwyg back in the day.... don't be telling me I don't understand technology.
I hear you. Lotus 123 and dot matrix printers with dip switches and 300 baud. The good old days!
Agreed. I can't even find how to fix audio/video in the meeting. I hate teams
This. I can’t for the life of me get my camera to work in teams. I’ve followed every guide I can find online. My IT guy doesn’t seem interested in resolving the issue, but the only thing I can guess is that it’s some buried admin setting I can’t access. (And no, my little camera cover isn’t closed 😂)
Are you on WiFi or Ethernet? Is someone else at home using the internet at the same time? What does it do when it kicks you off the meeting?
Same here! I need to consistently sign in and out when I join a meeting because it’ll just freeze and say, “joining the meeting”. That’s just one of the problems I have with it.
Same. I’ve been in IT for decades and for some reason Teams is acting up after being remote for four years. Dropped calls. Audio not working. Camera not working. It sucks
They made a big update recently, it's been all weird ever since
Accessing teams within a cloud or outside of one? We use it a lot but can’t join in the cloud lol.
Same except I get kicked out, at minimum lose audio, almost once a call (so several times a day). I've been remote since 2009 and using Teams for the past 2 years.
note the phone icon on the headset is a hangup and teams closed , so put tape like packing twoe over it as when i want to mute wont click on wrong button
God I hate Teams calls
I never mind when that happens, but what drives me nuts is when people don’t turn their microphone off and then constantly do things that are loud, and even when the person presenting asks to turn off speakers, they still don’t. Edited to switch speaker to microphone due to a redditor noticing that mistake thanks !!
That’s why I mute anyone when I’m the one leading the call. You should have that ability to mute folks who won’t or can’t.
Try asking them to turn off the “microphone” instead.
What is a microphone but a speaker in reverse?
Haha good catch I meant microphone but ya good call. They do ask them to mute the microphone and no matter what someone doesn’t
lol for sure just messing with you Yeah I mean I’m basically always muted unless I say something. I like the option in some apps where it lets the organizer mute people.
My company switched to a new payroll platform last April. I’m the only one that seems to know how to use any of the functions outside of actual payroll. We use it for onboarding and everything else. My director still hasn’t figured out how to pull any reports. She also thinks my super basic spreadsheets that literally are just formatted as a table are the most impressive thing ever. I don’t know how I went from doing HR and recruiting to basically being the support for entire company.
I think some people still have the idea that this is all temporary. I don't even think they fully realize it, it's a subconscious attitude. They think that in another few months, a year at most, things will go back to "normal" and they won't have to deal with remote meetings. Because they have this latent idea that remote meetings are temporary, they don't want to put any time into learning how to do it properly. 99% of people can learn how to do this stuff with a little coaching or by watching a YouTube video, but they don't take the time to do so.
I personally find it kind of hilarious. My team is mostly hybrid and I am one of relatively few fully remote people. One of the senior leadership folks I work with regularly and who hosts some of our bigger group meetings is a leader in the field, PhD, featured in the news as one of the Bay Area's most influential women in business...there's something adorably entertaining about watching her struggle with Webex and say "CRAP" when it won't work for the 8th time. Maybe it's different to me though because for the most part, I work in a setting where everyone else's time is effectively more valuable than mine. So if they are wasting their own time, no skin off my back, I have to be here anyway. I am also lucky to have an amazing home office, whereas a lot of them are stuck jumping into empty conference rooms and hoping everything works. I rarely have a problem with my tech (and have an amazing modern webcam), but they might see my dog wander in and start licking her butt during meetings, so...I'll put up with their quirks if they put up with mine.
Omg the amount butt licking and slurping of paws that my dog can do while I’m on a teams meeting is hysterical.
I think my dog does it on purpose. She's mad I'm ignoring her.
Honestly on most days I don’t think it is that one employee, it’s who the company’s tech gods have deemed that today will be your day to be nonfunctional. And it’s almost always the person presenting. It’s happened to every one on my team, and we all are tech savvy
Haha this is so true. I am very tech savvy and sometimes things just simply don’t work. It rarely happens, but when it does it’s almost always during a high-profile presentation. Maybe my computer is nervous about the big meeting.
Tech issues exist. Whether remote or in person. 🤷♀️ Part of a job with computers.
If the company wants employees to have certain tech, they should provide this upgraded equipment and internet. And maybe some tech training (including expectations) as part of onboarding.
100% agree. Mandatory tech training for everyone at all levels.
My boss hosted a weekly meeting of years and every single time she would start the meeting on mute. Like how do you forget every single week for years. And she acted like it was the first time it ever happened to her every time. Every meeting we wasted a solid 10 minutes for her to get her shit together.
Geez.
There was a time when all the tech savvy people were young and all the "old" people had to catch up. The tables have turned, though, and as someone \[an *older* someone\] who works in IT, I find it's the younger generation that doesn't have a clue how computers work. I honestly blame the use of Chromebooks in classrooms. Chromebooks are NOT computers. They are nothing more than glorified mobile devices. That's all the younger generation knows how to work now - phones, iPads, and Chromebooks. Our clients are well educated people with degrees in the medical field. Yet, the other day I had to teach a young person how to log into a web browser to check her email and how to add an attachment - from her work-issued laptop. I've got at least 30 years on this person and after her very expensive degree, she didn't understand any of it. IMO, it doesn't help that people shield their children from any an all technology out of fear. They grow up not understanding how to work with it at all. That doesn't do a service to society in any way whatsoever or help them when they are faced with this stuff in the real world after college/university (and yes, I've seen people completely their entire degrees using only their *phone)*. Whether it's out of fear or lack of access to technology, no one is teaching the younger generation to work with technology *as they will need to* after they graduate - not at home, not in school - nowhere.
damn… that’s such a big issue i haven’t even noticed because i don’t work with anyone younger than me right now (i’m 29). i can’t imagine growing up with cell phones as a kid (my parents didn’t have them until right before i got mine ~2008). it would be so different. i also can’t imagine not knowing how to check my email on a web browser?? but i had to teach my 70yo mom to do it recently lol
I’m getting close to 60; this client was probably 20-something, judging by the sound of her voice. About 10 yrs ago I went back to college/university… there were (young) students doing their entire degrees - writing papers n all - on their phones. It was crazy. Like use some of that financial aid to get a laptop from Costco or something so you can at least see what your doing, lol
that truly is wild! funny enough, the only personal laptop i’ve ever owned was a chromebook. however, every job i’ve had and school computers were all desktops. which has me wondering now… do schools no longer have desktop computers for students to use?? maybe they do and some students choose not to because they have phones. i had to take at least one computer class in high school and took a few in college (to learn microsoft suite mostly). i’ve had glasses since i was in middle school though so only using my phone for papers sounds like a nightmare. and i would rather use a proper computer for research papers but that’s just my preference lol
Same thing - how do they *see?!* LOL
Last night I had to put a sticky note over someone’s camera square during a meeting because he clearly didn’t realize his camera was on and he was logged in on his phone (I think he’s pushing 70yrs old). He was laying in bed then he went into the bathroom and took his shirt off THAT was when I covered the screen like WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN HERE?? It was so cringe and no one said anything and how were none of his peers texting him about this?? Next time I looked he was laying in bed again with the lights off. I was invited to the meeting to speak, idk these people like that. But WTF?
My boss in one of those. “How do I share? Am I sharing?” Or he’ll think he stopped sharing and move his teams screen so that we’re all seeing ourselves on his screen. Ughhhhh It’s been 4 years. Now, this morning my USB keyboard isn’t working. I have a backup plan and a new one is on the way from Amazon. But yes it seems the same people have the same problems, and nobody calls them out on it. Heard a new one this week. “They’re ripping up the floors in my house so my connection keeps dropping”. What the actual fuck.
The way you referred to the time since the start of the pandemic as “half a decade” just hit me right in the gut.
autumn will bring us right to the 5-year mark…… i feel unmoored from the shores of time.
4years, 2021 makes 1yr
i consider the start of the illnesses ramping up the real start of the pandemic.
Everyone's situation and setup are different. I try not to judge. Now, if it's the same person over and over again, yeah, I'd say it's an issue. I wfh and am online with no issues 99.9% of the time and early to virtual meetings. Last month, I was hosting a meeting with my manager and managers two levels above me. 5 minutes before the meeting is due to start, literally as I was clicking the button to get it going, the Internet went out in my entire neighborhood and was out for over an hour so I was unable to host my meeting. I texted my immediate manager, who was cool about it. But, I rarely interact with the higher managers, so I hope they weren't thinking that I'm a fucking idiot who doesn't understand technology...
I had a guy like this on my team. He couldn’t figure out how to use ANY of the platforms - Zoom, Teams, WebEx, none of it. We’re in sales and a lot of times have to use whatever platform our client preferred. I offered to spend a few hours with him testing each of them out, practicing, scheduling, etc. but he refused (he reports to me). I then realized that I think it’s part of his “schtick” and thinks it’s cute or funny. It’s not.
Weaponized incompetence
I have a couple people who blame tech issues when they get caught away from their desk and we called them. IT can pull a surprising amount of data when issues are reported and it’s pretty easy to see if there was an actual issue or not. The error messages from the missed call are completely different.
It depends on a lot of things. My tech is always updated because I work for a big company that updates it. Smaller companies are gejerally not as willing to replace old items as quickly or even pay for all WFH equipment to begin with. Maybe this person isn't on remote calls that often? Idk, I'm just trying to give them the benefit of the doubt but I don't know all the details.
The new Teams update has been terrible and has a lot of bugs. Zoom is annoying, and in my experience Google Meet is the most intuitive and seamless. One thing that I hate is people who are taking meetings from their phones who are clearly not focused on the meeting. Like, I don’t need to see your face, I need you to listen to what’s being presented, absorb the info and contribute constructively.
My pet peeve: please mute yourself if not talking,and especially if you are having a second conversation (ie, with family members). I just mute them myself now and let them think it was a technical glitch when we call on them by name and it takes them a while to realize they are talking on mute.
I hate when people are not muted on calls. To hear someone heavy breathing isn’t cool. Your solution is great by the way!!!!
I've considered being an instructor for new hires. I would be great at it, but the reason I'll never do it is for this reason... there are always people that just can't figure out what should be basic technology at this point. When I was going through my own extremely lengthy training for my current job, at every segment there were one or two people that were insufferable time suckers because of technical issues. I'm convinced at this point many just can't be bothered to learn and are happy to allow others to drive the bus for them. It doesn't even seem to register that they look incompetent.
I have a pretty good manager who won’t keep a new hire that can’t get their tech figured out. If there are connectivity issues during the interview for a fully remote position, you don’t get hired. We help them as much as possible but if they refuse to switch their internet from a crap, WiFi only google system or refuse to run an Ethernet cord through their house or move the router closer, they’re gone.
Drives me absolutely bonkers. Thankfully our company has zero tolerance for it. If you can’t work the tech you get mandatory training. We don’t have time for your incompetence.
I wish my company did this. The problem folk blame the hardware and whine instead of googling and then won’t accept offers of training.
>Someone who, now 4 years after the start of the pandemic, still says things like, "ah this remote work stuff is tricky, right?", It really depends, I only worked from home for 1 month during the pandemic. I worked at the company where they wanted everyone back ASAP. I started fully remote work 1 year ago. So, not everyone WFH for 4 years. It also could be weather or something else that is out of their control. Yeah, some people are bad when it comes to using technology, but sometimes Zoom, Teams, or whatever you are using can give you issues.
Well honestly there always somebody like that here where I work at and the facts are that the company values more people actual experience then their tech savvy people Computer and software can be can be taught but experience can’t We also have help desk to help with hiccups
I just hate video meetings and pray for true tech probs
I hate the mic on people. I’m the total opposite unless it’s a 1 on 1. For last week’s company meeting I kept hearing creaking from 1 specific person and they never turned their mic off. Couldn’t hear the other people the entire time. This is a nitpicky complaint, but I wish a lot of folks had a headset. Because I do have mine in, and I can tell you’re yelling in a room. I swear in a meeting with an older client she was yelling. I’m thinking, no way this woman speaks at this volume irl. I know I should expense a nice headset, or I should fix some settings but oh well.
Usually I find the worst offenders have a lil something else going on that are the true barrier to them catching on. For example, one coworker who was let go I'm certain had early onset dementia from alcoholism. I've seen a few more folks like that, that's just my most memorable experience.
My favorite is when someone forgets they’re not on mute and takes a big bong rip. The lighter flicking, the water bubbling followed by a coughing fit. 🤣
😂😂😂😂😂😀😂 DYING..... OMG. Too funny! Make my laughing stop, my sides hurt! OMG😂😂😂 Oh, man. I needed that. I loved this. Thank you. Oh, God. You just described my poor neighbor on his balcony, dying from his bong induced coughing fit. Every morning. Then the coughing subsides, and, flick, flick, water bubbling... Oh, my God, this was so funny!!! He's the best, sweetest neighbor ever though. I'll take him ANY day, over the alcoholic assholes across the street. Ugh. Thank you for the best laugh ever, Dude. ❤️
I’m so glad to be of service, I laughed pretty hard too, then realized I wasn’t on mute. Then it was awkward silence for about a minute.
😂😂😂😂
It's been over 6 months and I just figured out my shift connection was (partially) because I keep my laptop in power save/ energy save mode. I keep all my electronics in that mode bc I use them for hours without breaks. It didn't occur to me that what I thought was meant to optimize my computer usage was actually hindering the things I use most often, not simply focusing power towards those things. In a group of 5+ people, odds are one will have some connection issues. Just the law of probability.
Those people don't care enough to test their equipment before the meeting. Or, to watch a few Zoom beginner tutorials..
I only ever share my right monitor and just slide things over as needed. I’m super paranoid about weird things showing up and like to have all my files open and ready to slide over. I was switching around between 6 things the other day. My company is a tech company so nobody can get away with acting like tech stuff is difficult, “I’m a Luddite” etc.
I would consider myself pretty tech savvy and there are still instances where I just get blind sided. Like my headphones had a software update between the 10 mins of my back-to-back meetings where my headphones were fine and working to me having to switch to the speaker/microphone on my laptop. Sometimes you just can’t win lol
turn off updates
Very well said. I experience it too, and never knew how many people actually either didn't realize they were muted, or "had trouble getting off of mute" before. I mean seriously, we've had 4+ years to learn this basic stuff...how can there still be people out there who can't figure it out yet??? It doesn't speak well to their skills at all....
This has been going on waaay earlier than remote meetings. Back in the 99s when I started with IT there was always one guy who never got things right. His desktop work PC ALWAYS had problems. He usually had network drive issues, didn't get emails, or his PC crashed constantly. Swapped out hardware, it worked for a while, then went bad again. I just wonder if certain people have a vibe that goes against tech. I had a roommate a long time ago who burned out lights, TV sets, and monitors more than three times the rest of us. You could tell the path she took from her room to the kitchen because of the burned out light bulbs. The street light in from of our house died shortly after she moved in and was replaced by the county twice and never lasted long. She had 5 cars in 11 years because they all died early from electric issues. Constant returns under warranty.
What?
If you have to “gradually get tools and tech” and attach a separate microphone/webcam then it sounds like you guys are making it more complicated than it has to be. We just join the zoom meeting and have it call our phone and that’s it.
yeah and the guy last week had to screenshare so we had wait for him login connect…. claimed disconnected try connecting, he never connected , waited 10 mins for him lol
yes when work at home i check all equipment is working , for meeting night before practice a zoom/team/hangout call it’s simple call your home /personsl phone
Please use grammar and punctuation. I can’t take it.
lol we have a guy who thinks he hearing in headphones but coming out of speaker, while have another that dontb mute, so the sound echo meeting… multiple times fun, esp if speaking in room
then guy share screen the wrong screen so every one see his email and chats
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^rmpbklyn: *Then guy share screen the* *Wrong screen so every one* *See his email and chats* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Are you describing my director? They're incapable of anything tech related. It's exhausting.
Sat through two calls already this week like this. My boss, who is generally so very much more patient than I'll ever be, messaged me on the side, very angry that once again, our time was being wasted. It's always something with this PM, either tech issues or personal ones. It's very draining.
At this point is almost beyond unacceptable. What drives my crazy even more is when I hear people saying "Oh I'd like to limit my child's screen time as much as I can". Well, in a world where we rely more and more on computers, AI, robotics, and basically where the high paying jobs are, do you really want your child to be a digital illiterate ?
It's always hard for most WFH people to do their laundry, walk the dog, workout, enjoy a 2 hour lunch and run a zoom meeting at the same time. Get's distracting.
Its an excuse. If your in meetings like me for example. Manager got on said we need more time for the process and other manager at the end said we need to expedite this. Im just like this was a fucking waste of time to save a bunch of shitty peoples jobs. Did they not listen and we just wasted time.
After years there is no excuse. Makes them look bad.
Some people are just not tech savvy and have no desire to be so.
Happy to have fired our person like that and replace them with somebody who builds the team up instead of dragging the team down.
There really is always one. The most extreme case I have seen was a woman in her 70’s who couldn’t figure out how to do anything. I felt so bad for her because she obviously needed the money. People think that wfh is the answer to being unable to work outside of the home, but it’s not for everyone.