'You're on mute': Five years on from Zoom

It's been five years since New Zealand became locked into alert level 4 due to the Covid pandemic and, for the first time in history, the government closed borders to all but New Zealand citizens and permanent residents.

As Covid cases climbed in 2020, gatherings were restricted, workplaces were deserted and video calls became go-to for meetings. "You're on mute" a new daily utterance.

Virtual meetings never left our calendar. They continue to give us a peek into our colleagues' lives - their homes, pets, kids - and our professional relationships are more personal than ever. But is the extra visibility a good thing?

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Spice HR consultants Nichola Gold and Nicole Griffiths say video calling is a "revolutionary" tool for work, allowing for remote and flexible working conditions, but it has to be used wisely.

"You have to have strategies in place to make sure that you're only giving as much as you want to give, and is healthy to give, because it's easy for that to then fall into, 'Well I'm at home, I'm making dinner, but I can hop on a quick Zoom call'.

"It's really important that people have the ability to put those boundaries in place, that those boundaries are respected, and that they feel comfortable and safe to push back on those boundaries as well, so people don't feel worked into the ground because they can be, or available 24/7 because they can be," Griffiths says.

If you're working from your bedroom, you're already bringing your professional work into a personal environment. So what are the limits to how relaxed you can be? Can you hop on a Zoom call wearing your PJs, vape during a remote training session, or have your cat on your lap during an important meeting?

Dr Paula O'Kane, an expert in workplace electronic communications, says one must assess what's appropriate for the situation - how formal or casual the meeting is, how many people are involved, and whether you'd make the same behavioural and aesthetic decisions if it were an in-person interaction.

"There are no rules, and this is where it comes down to the type of interaction we're having... and you've got the same decisions to make when you're in face-to-face communication like, do I put a suit on or do I not put a suit on?

"We've got people involved in how they're reading the situation, we've got the actual task we're undertaking, how formal we need to be, whether we've got one or more participants in that interaction. If there's only two of us, we're gonna have to be a lot more attentive, if we're in a group of 10, we're going to be potentially less attentive."

Gold says a remote meeting should be treated just like an in-person meeting, as far as the actual communication goes - that means cameras on and full attention.

"Your eyes are your camera, and a lot of communication is non-verbal. Having your camera on is how you look into things ... you don't walk into a meeting with your eyes shut."

Video calling can leave a bit more room for casual chit chat about things like pets and kids and home decor, breaking up the humdrum of daily tasks and inviting in a bit more community at work. Dr O'Kane says this kind of self-disclosure can be beneficial to how you connect with your colleagues.

"Getting to know people on a different level, that's actually really good for our engagement with each other.

"We don't need to know lots, but to know a little bit, it's sort of an idea called self-disclosure, where if you say something to someone, they're more likely to disclose something to you.

"If I disclose my children to you, you're more likely to disclose something personal to me, which can help with our understanding of each other and actually make things better."

Video calling can feel quite confronting, especially for introverted people, Dr O'Kane says.

Face-to-face meetings can allow shyer colleagues to comfortably sink into the background, but there's nowhere to hide in a video call. All eyes are on you - including your own - and it's an uncomfortable feeling that makes it hard for some people to fully engage online.

"Research suggests ... we turn off self-view so that we're not constantly focused on how we look, and how we come across to other people, and can actually pay attention to who's speaking and what's going on."

Dr O'Kane says we're (literally) seeing too much of ourselves on a video call, which can have detrimental effects on our wellbeing "and cause extra layers of stress" too.

"When we're in a face-to-face situation, we don't see how we come across to other people as much, so it can be better not to be looking at yourself all the time."

Gold says people can use background filters or a blurring tool if they want a bit more separation between their private and work lives. But, ultimately, it's down to individual businesses to assess whether video calling is the right tool to use.

"Think about how many generations are in work at the moment, and for the younger ones, what do you do when you're flatting? For us, we have an office space set up, and you know, you could have Zoom, but is it in your bedroom balancing your laptop on your ironing board?"

Griffiths says workplaces can mitigate some of the challenges by planning in-person team days.

"Things like Zoom definitely have their place, but there needs to be some care around making sure the personal stuff still happens, especially for a business that's fully remote.

"... humans are social beings and if people are stuck in their homes all day, everyday, because they can be, because they can work from home, I don't think that's a healthy approach either."