General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAre you self-conscious about the backdrop of your home while working from home?
Are you taking steps to ensure that your webcam does not pick up how untidy your home is in the background while you're on a conference call with your co-workers?
Or, that you have some really weird art hanging on the walls?
Or, those dead bodies that you have hanging around because you couldn't get out to dispose of them because of that whole social distancing thing? Am I right?
LAS14
(13,783 posts)... of all the CNN and PBS people. Looks like people are still reading books!!
But I do go to church via zoom. My backgrond is book cases too.
mcar
(42,323 posts)dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)ret5hd
(20,491 posts)So no problem.
I once paged an on-call and when he called back, as I was relating the issue to him, I stopped and asked, Are you......PISSING???? He quickly said he would call me back and hung up.
shanti
(21,675 posts)Skittles
(153,160 posts)but.....it just felt DISRESPECTFUL, ya know? EGREGIOUS!
MontanaMama
(23,314 posts)if the dude didnt wash his hands after.
3catwoman3
(23,978 posts)...that he didn't.
LakeArenal
(28,817 posts)Ms. Toad
(34,069 posts)So every single one of my students gets to see me at home.
House is untidy - camera pointed away from the untidy.
We upped the ante on my background. I'm in a recliner (I don't have a work station since I've always worked entirely from work), but a giant frog is sitting behind my head now. Occasionly my cat (who also occasionally walks across my laptop). The frog blocks the mirror that threatens to display the mess.
No dead bodies, unless you count the mice my cat tortured but didn't finish off.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Ms. Toad
(34,069 posts)They get to see me less formally - we've gone to CR/NCR so I don't have to be so strict on grades - and - we are moving into the period when I want them to see me as their best buddy (I have to prepare them for the bar exam after graduation, and I need to be approachable).
Not so good, since teaching a live class remotely is an art I have not yet mastered. My first full class will be Monday - but during our time off I've interacted with groups ranging from 1 to 30+. I have always known I depend heavily on audience reaction to adjust what I am doing & it is very hard to gauge audience reaction when I'm the only one talking and (so far) only a few are willing to be on video. I'm debating whether to require video. That will be a challenge for those with less stable internet connections (and poses the same "what can everyone else see about me" issues for my students).
I'm getting better - a half-dozen small group, voluntary, classes in. But it's a far cry from how comfortable I've always felt in the classroom.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)I'm smiling at the thought of all the video conundrums, so understandable. At least you're not a novice thrown in to teach with no art developed to build on. Have fun. They want it to work as well also.
Ms. Toad
(34,069 posts)(And 15 years as a lawyer between the two). Nope, not a novice.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)novice assistant might accidentally pull the frog down during class? Little details.
Ms. Toad
(34,069 posts)He was scared of it at first (it's between 2 and 3 feet tall). He seems to have gotten used to it - but it's a bit heavy for him to knock over.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)underpants
(182,800 posts)We have conference calls daily for work. Not Zoom just voice
Twice we've had people (management) tell us precautionary tales about people not muting their phone and going to the bathroom OR on Zoom calls taking their phone in to the bathroom or changing clothes during the call.
All of those have happened since last Wednesday
Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)underpants
(182,800 posts)Did he wash his hands?
That was hilarious
Igel
(35,300 posts)Empathy, not so much.
Until we need it. Then it still doesn't happen, but, dammit, it *should*!
catrose
(5,066 posts)Tanuki
(14,918 posts)his Inaugural Address with a sharpie at what turned out to be the receptionist's desk at Merde-a-Loco.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/01/why-doesnt-donald-trump-have-his-own-desk-at-mar-a-lago.html
meadowlander
(4,395 posts)or to give a heads up/set a meeting time if video is required.
I'm more worried about the PJs than the house. There's a blank white wall behind my sofa, so I'm covered.
trackfan
(3,650 posts)Fools them every time.
Iggo
(47,552 posts)irisblue
(32,973 posts)LisaM
(27,811 posts)I have lots of books and art but the computer is by the window.
sdfernando
(4,935 posts)on your video feed. You could be on the beach or in the Grand Canyon.
Hekate
(90,681 posts)JHB
(37,160 posts)So far, I've used the foyer to Bag End (Bilbo & Frodo Baggins' house) and the Planet Express building from Futurama.
For Monday I think I'll use an International Space Station view of the Aurora Borealis.
Needless to say, this is just for in-department touchbases.
sdfernando
(4,935 posts)Shared are WFH work areas, had a costume day...someone wants "contents of your refrig"....and I'm like NO WAY!
woodsprite
(11,914 posts)that made him look like he was sitting at his desk. He even did it as a loop so it showed him blinking and smirking every once in awhile. He didn't let it go on long because he poked his head in from the side, but it was pretty funny.
central scrutinizer
(11,648 posts)Either to blur out the background or provide a nature scene backdrop
bluedye33139
(1,474 posts)I work in a small practice and we have switched all psychotherapy to telehealth. I have never been able to work at home, never. When I was a university professor, I had a blanket policy of refusing to take student papers home to grade. I refuse to sit in my home and think about students or clients, as my home is my sanctuary and I have programmed my mind to relax when I get home.
I used to do crisis mental health work, and when you go to a home at 3:00 a.m. and deal with suicidal or homicidal mentally ill people and you see astonishing despair and violence and disruption, you need to develop techniques to keep that out of your home.
When I am at home, I do not think about my clients or students.
My heart goes out to people who are forced by circumstance to work from home. I believe that a healthy work life balance involves putting barriers up against our professional lives outside of the home and maintaining the home as a sanctuary of peace, love, and safety.
CousinIT
(9,243 posts)And nobody sees a damn thing in my house.
NutmegYankee
(16,199 posts)That's why I zoom by phone during our morning meetings.
davsand
(13,421 posts)I'm backlit, and that's fine by me! Occasionally, one of the two cats will be climbing around on the chair or on me, and that's when hilarity ensues. Totoro--the kitten--completely scattered a file folder the other day when he decided to climb up on the table next to me. We will not be doing that again! LOL!
Laura
Love that movie
davsand
(13,421 posts)Our daughter tells her friends that her childhood was a combination of Disney and Studio Ghibli. My Neighbor Totoro was one of the first of his films I watched, and has remained a favorite over the years.
Laura
Kitchari
(2,166 posts)The wonderful anime mivies, but I'm not fluent in the genre. I enjoy so much the ones ive seen, such as Totoro, which ive seen several times. Love love love
SWBTATTReg
(22,118 posts)the dead bodies! I remember that clip that showed on national TV about the little kids coming into their Dad's office while he was on the conf. call, and it was cute. The wife comes running in, and grabs the two kids and ushers them out, and you could see the Dad still maintaining his composure, all during the invasion (kids and wife)...funny.
Demovictory9
(32,454 posts)potty. they filmed a follow up with the family one year later.
magicarpet
(14,150 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,118 posts)Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)Thats what I would have done. Id say sorry for the distraction, but it looks like I have a helper and kept going without missing a beat with my kid in my lap.
I love the kid in the walker trailing behind! Too funny.
magicarpet
(14,150 posts)Said I want to be a movie star too, just like Daddy. Am I on the camera, can you see me on the camera too..... ?
magicarpet
(14,150 posts)You cant see in my windows on Goggle Drive By, right ?
mia
(8,360 posts)You can choose from your own images too, including saved works of art and scenes. Here's one from wikimedia.
TheBlackAdder
(28,193 posts).
Remember these:
Plain background
.
hunter
(38,311 posts)I'll ignore anyone who says it's not.
PufPuf23
(8,775 posts)I once was acquainted with a guy who would get road kill and cure or whatever one does and re-assemble parts of the various roadkill into phantasy animals of a combination of species and then try to sell them. This was in a very rural area within a National Forest so was a road kill rich environment and maybe he just killed too avoiding the roadkill step but he said road kill when he tried to sell to me.
Have no idea whatever happened to him but probably not so good and also I did not meet nor interact with him by my volition.
Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)Thats hilarious. Im going to have to update my online dating profile and add that to it. I like to throw in bits of humor into things when I can.
Demonaut
(8,915 posts)qwlauren35
(6,148 posts)The other day, I was caught off guard and had to do an unannounced video conference call in my pajamas before I had brushed my hair. I just focused on the technical part and decided I wasn't going to worry about how I looked.
With that said, I thought it was interesting that folks paid so much attention to Joe Biden's background, and I thought Trevor Noah's Daily Show background was fascinating.
So I guess people do look.
I could put a screen up. Hmm...
lpbk2713
(42,757 posts)I kid. I kid.
Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)You never know who is going to come home with you on a given night and I hate to embarrass myself with a messy or dirty apartment.
Now, with social distancing, nobody is coming home with me, but at least things always look good on a webcam.
nolabear
(41,961 posts)But they are a good backdrop. I use mine too. The house? Its fine.
I also like seeing how modest the digs of most celebrities are. Very few are stinking rich.
Igel
(35,300 posts)The one near town for weekends, not the nice one further away.
And certainly not the one in the north of Italy.
neeksgeek
(1,214 posts)My wife is working from home now too. We both have to talk on the phone and/or webcam. No way we can share an office if Im teaching class and shes on a call. So I moved my workstation into what used to be our dining room. My options for background are the kitchen or the folding doors of our laundry closet. Ugh. Thinking of hanging a curtain!
Edited to add, on Thursday I got a laugh out of my students when I leapt up to rescue the cats food bowl from our dog.
dem4decades
(11,288 posts)And you could see shows tossed around on the ground in the shot. After a while they adjusted the angle to keep the junk out of the picture.
woodsprite
(11,914 posts)I found out that you can change your background on Zoom. I have it set to a favorite beach picture I uploaded, but there are canned backgrounds to choose from as well.
DenverJared
(457 posts)my webcam software allows it
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)The one with Peter Dinklage ...
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)My manager tells us its optional and I would say about 40% of the team uses video and the rest of us don't. It kind of creeps me out for some reason. I have never even done it for personal calls. I don't know why I am so opposed to it. My apartment isn't messy, but it just feels very invasive to me.
Also, part of the bonus about not having to go into the office is not having to get dressed or groomed and put on makeup, etc. I would rather not be seen au natural.
Iggo
(47,552 posts)I did take a series of North West South East pics to post in the 7-member text group thread we have for my department.
But I had to keep retaking the photos because I saw something new and embarrassing.
After about three tries I gave up.
No pics from Iggo's Bunker.
marlakay
(11,464 posts)And other stuff, do it on my desktop for bookclub and tall book cases behind me. My dance class I do in living room and I just clear out room and fix pillows on couch.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,340 posts)... and a print of Dogs Playing Poker on the wall. It's classy.