Is Our Video Conferencing Excellent Or Bad?

In principle, holding meetings while sitting at home, without visiting the office, is quite convenient. However, the employee may sooner or later get bored with it.

He will feel tired from constant video communication and may decide that he can no longer work in this format. Do not think that these are just whims.

Video conferencing can get very tiring. There are several reasons for this, which should be considered separately.

Excessive Eye Contact

When a person meets someone on the street, in the office, in a cafe, he keeps a certain distance. He gets used to seeing the face of the interlocutor at a distance. He does not maintain constant eye contact, being distracted by other communication details.

During a video conference, a person will look at the monitor screen all the time, where the faces of the interlocutors will appear large. Yes, and eye contact will be maintained constantly. There will be no way to take your eyes off. All this is exhausting and exhausting.

In fact, during a videoconference, the participant’s gaze constantly seems to be in one place. He is directed at the monitor screen, where nothing happens unless the speaker’s presentation is shown there.
The picture does not change with the same faces and poses, and the information is captured by ear. But the eyes are not accustomed to such an extended examination of a static picture, and they need “movement” and a change of “decoration”.

If this is the cause of fatigue from video communication, you need to make the window smaller, where the faces of the participants in the conversation are displayed. You can distance yourself a little from the monitor to gain some personal space, to feel more protected.

And even for a while, you can “roll up” the image, remove it, leaving only the sound, so as not to lose your thoughts and continue to follow the meeting. As a rule, no one on the “other side” will see or understand that one of the meeting participants has turned off the picture on his computer.

Constant Self-Monitoring

In reality, a person does not devote much time to admiring himself in the mirror. When a video conference is in progress, the meeting participant often sees the faces of the interlocutors and observes his image. He begins to worry about how the people he is talking about see him how he looks.

He may begin to perceive himself as overly critical, and he may start to torment himself, searching for the most successful angle, lighting settings. Fatigue will come pretty quickly from these actions, but it is unlikely that satisfaction will be achieved.

In addition, the meeting participant may feel that all other participants are looking only at him. This occurs involuntarily since a person usually sees himself in the first and most noticeable window of a video conference. At the same time, many do not understand that on the other participants’ computers in the meeting, its image will not be located at all where it is located on their computer.

How To Deal With The Demonstration Of Yourself And With Your Microphone

To reduce anxiety and get rid of fatigue from video conferencing, you can permanently or temporarily turn off the demonstration of your image on your screen. The interlocutors will see it. It would help if you first took care of lighting your appearance to look decent at the meeting.

Even better is to turn off your video image completely. But unfortunately, such actions are prohibited by the regulations of many meetings.

But if, on the contrary, the rules of the meeting provide for the mandatory shutdown of your video image, then this must be done. And not only to comply with the laws but so that the attention of the meeting participants is not distracted by “extraneous pictures”.

It is even more important to keep your microphone constantly turned off. The fact is that various extraneous sounds in the apartment, in the house, outside the window, from the phone (smartphone), will be perfectly audible to the rest of the meeting participants.

Turning off your microphone when the meeting participant is not speaking is the same as turning off your smartphone in a regular offline meeting. The meeting participants can’t make any extraneous sounds, even if these sounds arise regardless of their will and desire.

Thus, it is most comfortable to mute both your video and your microphone during a meeting. At a minimum, the microphone should be muted if the meeting participant is not speaking, asking questions, or participating in the discussion at the current time.

lack Of Movement

It has been scientifically proven that a person who moves thinks better and faster. If an employee communicates a lot via video, he will sit motionless most of the time to always remain in the camera’s field of view. He will feel constrained, and this will make him uncomfortable. Naturally, he will be tired.

Solving this problem is not as difficult as it might seem. You need to purchase an external camera with a broader viewing angle than the one built into the laptop. So the person will have more opportunities to move and be able to relax.

It can also be helpful to attend a meeting standing up instead of sitting down. This, of course, is not easy – to stand for quite a long time on your feet. But suppose a laptop or tablet is used as a computer or a webcam with a relatively long wire. In that case, you can periodically change your position: either stand or sit at a meeting, constantly evolving the video camera’s angle.

If the meeting rules allow you to turn off your video image at least for a while, then you should do it periodically to get up from your seat for at least a few seconds, walk within the room, or even further. But such “jogging” should not lead to a loss of attention during the meeting.

It’s good if a laptop or tablet used as a means of communication for participating in a remote meeting can be taken with you during such “walks”. Or, say, you can use wireless headphones, which will allow you to move away from the computer a little, but still hear everything that happens in the meeting.

Increased Cognitive Load

Virtual communication takes much more effort than real. The human brain works much harder than usual because the meeting participant has to make more effort to perceive what the interlocutors say to him.

If we add to this the need to look at each of the participants in the video conference, then there is no need to be surprised at the appearance of severe fatigue.
To not feel tired all the time, so as not to be exhausted, you need to take breaks to move away from the computer when the opportunity arises. For example, as described just above – temporarily turn off your video image and use remote headphones.

It is also difficult to perceive information displayed on the screen in the form of a remote presentation. It seems that the pictures are changing too quickly, and it looks like you don’t have time to understand what is shown on them.

It would seem, what difference does it make to watch a presentation live while sitting at a conference or meeting or to watch a presentation on a computer screen online? An, no! Still, it is easier to manage life, and the information is perceived better.

How To Improve Information Flow

To “panic” less that you do not have time to perceive pictures of presentations, you can use a relatively simple trick. Almost any computer, tablet or smartphone can take screenshots of the image displayed on the monitor screen.

Here, in this case, it is enough to press one or two or three keys (depending on the technology for taking screenshots on a particular computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone). And then, the image that is currently on the monitor screen will be automatically converted into a picture. And the picture itself will be placed in one of the folders on your computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. And now, at any time, you can extract this picture from there and view it separately, without hurrying anywhere.

This is how you can somehow catch up with the pace of demonstrating presentations during a video conference if a meeting (conference) participant is worried that the production is shown so quickly that you can’t keep up with it.

In general, if you know how to use it “to the fullest”, a computer gives you a lot of opportunities to adapt your own pace of information perception to the rate that is maintained at the meeting. And the correct use of the capabilities of a computer (laptop, tablet, smartphone) will allow you to always stay in touch and at the same time not experience discomfort from participating in a remote meeting.

How Not To Get Tired During a Video Conference

And, finally, the final general advice: if fatigue from the constant use of video communication has appeared, then you cannot let the situation take its course. It would be best if you found the cause of your fatigue and took all measures to eliminate it.

This will allow you to remain productive, enjoy your work and not regret that there is no possibility of live communication with colleagues in the office.

The post Video Conferencing Fatigue – How To Deal With It? appeared first on TechReviewsCorner.

Whether with the adoption of prevention measures for the coronavirus or with the establishment of teleworking, what is clear is that nothing will ever be the same. We have already talked about the advantages and disadvantages of teleworking, but sometimes they cannot even be valued.

Any company, whether or not they have opted for this solution, should prepare. It is not just that it is one of the trends in human resources for 2021, it is that while there is no vaccine against COVID-19, there may be new measures that force teleworking.

Learning to hold online meetings and use tools for teleworking will allow the company to continue its course, whatever happens. It is also a way of end marketing and improving the employee experience.

With this situation, most of them prefer telework, and we already know that happier workers are also more productive employees.

Therefore, we have selected the ten most useful teleworking tools so that employees and employers are comfortable in the new situation.

Top Telecommuting Tools

Slack

The most important thing when teleworking is to maintain communication as if we were in the office. Of all the options, perhaps the most interesting is Slack.

Slack is a group chat, but it stands out among other options for its classification ways. We can have different chat groups to work with our co-workers in real-time comfortably.

In this sense, you can make a specific chat for a department, another for a project, for workgroups, etc … A way that all the information that interests a certain group of people is in that group quickly and comfortably.

A smartphone application can also be used from a desktop, with easy and simple operation thanks to its labeling.

Slack’s biggest advantage over other options is its different integration options. For example, it can be seamlessly integrated into Skype, Google Drive, HubSpot, or Dropbox.

Another option that should not be ruled out is WhatsApp. The advantage of WhatsApp is that everyone has it, and you will not need to have a different application. Also, it is usually the most common way to talk to customers. If you don’t need many groups or share documents, it can also be used perfectly.

Less popular and as useful as Slack, we can find other applications such as Spike, Microsoft Teams, Yac, and Rocket Chat.

Trello

Trello has been one of the most popular telecommuting tools for years. We are facing a task organizer for the members of a work team.

It works in a very intuitive way and allows you to classify projects with different labels. These labels will differ depending on the importance of the tasks or equipment. Likewise, files, links, expiration dates, and other data can be attached to each one.

Likewise, it allows you to see at a glance how a project is doing if a task is in process, if it has been completed, if it needs to be reviewed or if, on the contrary, it has not yet been started with it.

It is a very flexible and visual application. In addition, it has a robot called Butler that automates workflows, saving time and increasing productivity.

As in the case of Slack, Trello can be integrated with other applications. Some of them are the same Slack, Dropbox, Invision, Zapier, or Google Drive.

Skype

Having a chat or a project management program is great, but it is often better to talk things face to face. For this, we can use different video conferencing programs. In this case, we recommend Skype as it is the most popular. What to say about Skype that hasn’t already been said?

With a free option and a professional version, it is not only a video program, but you can also share documents with Google Docs or share a screen, highly recommended if we are going to make a presentation.

In addition, the business version has integration with Microsoft Office, having many more options available.

If we use Google Drive or other Google tools regularly, instead of Skype, we are interested in Google Meet, which allows meetings of up to 50 people with high quality. People who do not have a Google account can even attend the meeting by accessing through a link.

Loomio

Loomio is another of the most interesting teleworking tools. In this case, it is a tool intended only for the field of decision-making.

To use it, you have to invite different users to the tool and create a debate or discussion. There each one can present their points of view and can finally make decisions about it.

One of the advantages is that everyone doesn’t need to be online at the same time. Different users can enter whenever they want and participate. Considering that among the benefits for teleworking employees is flexible hours, it makes this not a problem in decision making.
Depending on how we configure each debate, the user will be able to respond to the proposals in different ways, adding an option to block them. In addition, you can accept, reject or abstain from the vote.

In this way, democratic or consensual decisions can continue to be made when required without the different working hours posing any problem. It is also very useful for work teams relocated or located in other countries.

Another similar but much simpler option is Doodle.

Toggl

While we are used to having certain routines in the office, doing it at home is more complicated. We can waste more time on other tasks and not control how much we dedicate to each project.

To solve this problem, Toggl was born. This teleworking tool allows you to control the time you dedicate to each task or project in a very simple way. We start counting when we begin with the job and stop when we finish or move on to another.

In this way, it is very easy to find out, for example, how much daily work we have to answer emails or what aspects take us longer, allowing us to organize it much better. It is a very simple tool, and it is also key to improving productivity.

Designed in Estonia, the leading country in teleworking, it is perfect for teams that work remotely and see how much time each member spends on a common project.

Another very similar option is RescueTime.

Also Read: Five Tips That Enhance The Advantages Of Teleworking

Sesame

If Toggl was the perfect tool for workers to organize their work and control their hours, Sesame is ideal for those controlling bosses. The latter is not yet convinced of the benefits of teleworking and believes that their employees will do other things during working hours.

It is a tool designed to control the schedule of the working day. By working through geolocation, you can check that the employee is in his teleworking position for the hours they must dedicate.

In this way, you will have the certainty that they have been in their position and have not gone to the hairdresser, the bar, or the supermarket.

It is highly recommended in cases where workers have work flexibility and make different schedules. This way, you will check whether they are dedicating the required time to the company despite the programs.

Sesame has different systems for signing, controlling overtime, and planning and preparing shifts, which are also very useful for the Human Resources department.

Muzzleapp

Generally, if we use these tools for teleworking, we will have many notifications on our computers. A new chat on Slack, a call on Google Meet, a FaceTime request, etc …

However, if we are in an online meeting or need to concentrate 100% on the task we are doing, these notifications can be a real headache.

To fix it, Muzzleapp appeared. With this tool, you will not have any interruption while sharing the screen. You can set it to view yourself, but other people who are viewing your presentation will not.

This is especially useful if you have a meeting with a client and a colleague wants to give you some advice or correction. You will see it but not the client, with which you can avoid looking bad.

There is only a version for Apple, and it is not compatible with Skype. If it is with Slack, FaceTime, Google Meet, bluejeans, Google Hangouts

Asana

Going back to project management, we have to talk about Asana. One of the most popular teleworking tools with Trello, which we told you about in point 2.

Although it shares functionalities with Trello, it differs by its design, is less basic than Trello, and is much more visual. In addition, it also has a completely free version, useful for almost any company.

You can assign tasks, tag them, set deadlines, attach files, and place them in the different stages.

On the other hand, it places the tasks you have to do so that as soon as you enter, you can see what your priorities are for that day, warning you if the deadline is approaching. Its use of colors makes it more dynamic than other options, generating greater user satisfaction.

Other options for project management are Todoist, Google Task, or Taskify

Google Drive

Finally, we have to talk about Google Drive. This cloud tool allows you to share files and folders from any device with the entire work team.

This allows, for example, two people to be working on the same text document or spreadsheet at the same time also that a very large file can be shared in a moment, which could not be sent by email.

Likewise, it allows the invitation to people outside your organization to edit or view a specific document or folder without giving them access to the rest.

Although the paid version has more space, with the free version, you get 15GB of space at no cost, which may be more than enough for many employees.

Other similar options are Dropbox, OneDrive, or WeTransfer to send files.

Also Read: Massive Use Of Teleworking For IT Professions In 2021

The post The Best Tools For Teleworking appeared first on TechReviewsCorner.

Tips For Your Interview on SKYPE

Online job interviews are becoming more and more frequent. Therefore it is essential to feel comfortable with the format, so we are going to give you a few tips to keep in mind :

• The first thing you should do is check the Internet connection. It must be stable so that it does not cut. Make a previous video call with a trusted person and take the opportunity to rehearse. By the way, you will check if the microphone and the camera work perfectly. Download or update the version of Skype you have installed, either on your pc or on your mobile, to avoid incompatibilities or malfunctions.
• Validate your connection data, check your Skype profile or even create another professional; you will also give a better impression if your login is easy to locate. Remember that we leave many traces on the Internet, and Skype is another space where we can support our candidacy. We also remind you that having a careful digital presence and identity will help you know how to download our ebook on personal branding.
• Prepare the place for the interview: it is advisable to choose a neutral, severe and quiet space. Before starting, check the angle of the light to avoid being in shadow and check that you do not appear too pale or bright. If the ‘light scheme’ does not convince you, buy a small spotlight that illuminates you and comes out perfectly in the plane of your webcam. Take care of the order in that space; keep in mind that in addition to your image, what is seen behind you will influence the opinion you cause.
• Dress for success: choose clothes as if you were going to a personal interview. Avoid flashy colors or fine stripes, nuclear white, prints, and eye-catching accessories or accessories.
• Try to look at the webcam: when doing a Skype interview, it is essential to make eye contact “on the screen” as it will help you appear focused and give the impression that you are looking into the interviewer’s eyes. Maintain an upright posture. Leaning slightly towards the camera will increase eye contact with your interviewer and better show your facial expressions.
• Respect speaking turns and be punctual.
• Record the interview on Skype for later analysis. This can be very useful for self-criticism. Of course, you will need the consent of the interviewer.
• Stay in touch after the interview. An additional benefit you can get in this interview format is that you may have the interviewer’s email address to send a follow-up email or thank you message a few days later.

For adults, the success of a Skype interview will be determined by taking care of the small details such as the username, not saying goodbye with the hand at the end of the interview, body language and no noise.

Also, do not let the format prevent you from preparing the interview usually, find out about the company, review the requirements for the position and look for information on the most common questions or how to get out of uncomfortable questions. He also seeks training on aspects valued but not essential for the position. Having already enrolled in a course or having a complimentary training plan may be very pleasing to your interviewer.

Also Read: 6 Digital Skills That You Should Improve

The post How To Do a Good Interview on Skype appeared first on TechReviewsCorner.

Videoconferences – a help for teleworking

In the times we are living, it is essential to listen to the authorities and stay home and, whenever possible, work from home. To do this, we present a selection of useful videoconferencing applications so that you do not have problems when communicating with your coworkers.

Zoom

Zoom is a video conferencing and webinar platform with a wide variety of functions including group chat, meeting recording, screen sharing, and virtual whiteboard, among others. It is one of the most used tools in the professional field for meetings and/or interviews.

Skype

Secondly, Skype is the best-known platform, although it does not offer as many functions as the rest. It should be noted that it is ideal for users with low-quality internet connections. In addition, Skype allows integration with other Microsoft tools such as Teams, Outlook, or OneDrive.

Slack

Without a doubt, Slack is another of the most widespread options in large and small companies. It enables communication and collaboration of teams remotely and also allows the integration of other external services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or Twitter.

Hangouts Meet

Hangouts Meet is another effective alternative to hold virtual meetings. One of its strengths is that the security of meeting content is guaranteed since all video and audio transmissions are encrypted. Furthermore, due to the coronavirus crisis, Google has made this tool available to everyone for free.

Wanna see

Finally, a very interesting option is Wanna see, a Live Video Marketing tool powered by the data company Artyco . Intuitively, it allows companies to enable the option of video calling with customers on their websites, which is essential to facilitate communication on these difficult days. In addition, beyond commercial use, it can also be very useful for complicated circumstances such as emergencies and macho violence. You can know how it works in this video.

In short, there are multiple options to be able to work remotely and maintain contact with teams, customers, and suppliers. This is just a small selection. Which do you usually use in your company?

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