Conference Calls III – Treat it Like a Regular Meeting

If you are wondering whether we will ever stop talking about conference calls, the answer is… yes! We will gladly stop once we get all or most of you to toe to the line and follow at least some form of conference call etiquette. As the days pass in lockdown and we take more and more conference calls, the more you expose your ignorance of call conferencing etiquette; but only until you read through the Full of Etiquette articles and brush up!

Don’t Hand Over Controls to Your Kids

Sometimes they do make more sense than you – especially if they have driven you up the wall by the time the call starts. However, it is not cute or fun for the other people to talk to and entertain your kid for a good fifteen minutes when they were supposed to be discussing business. As we mentioned in our first article on conference calls; ‘Getting Things Going‘, the ideal situation is to have someone else mind the kids or distract them before you start the call. Yes, this rule applies, no matter how cute your kids are.

Take Notes as You Would at a Regular Meeting

At the end of the conference call, don’t call one of the others who was on the call and ask dozens of questions about what was discussed as though you were never on the call. We are adults, our retention is average – I know this very well. Luckily for us, pen and paper were invented sometime ago – if you are not happy to take tech notes on a word pad, please open your note book and scribble whatever you need to keep a track of. There is nothing professional about ringing people up after a call to ask whether they remember this, that or the other. Worse – don’t ask them to send a picture of their note book. Yikes! If you are unable to take notes, say so as the meeting starts and pre-arrange for someone to note things down on your behalf and share with you via email.

Don’t Keep Making Excuses to Get Off the Call

‘I think someone is at the door’, ‘Oh my kid spilled his water’, ‘BRB’ and ‘Let me wash my face and come – it’s so warm’ are really not going to fly. No one appreciates this lack of focus, not to mention the waste of their time. An occasional disturbance to the call is acceptable and inevitable in most cases, but it should not be the norm. More than once in a call of one hour just shows lack of respect and that you do not have your priorities straight. When you do need to step out of the call, say ‘Excuse Me – I need to urgently be away from the call but I will be back in a few mimnutes’, press the mute button, knock off your camera and go. When you return, unmute your call, say that you have returned and reconnect your video.

Keep Listening – More Like, Pay Attention

This happens mostly when it is an ‘audio only’ conference call. People log in, connect, say hi and go take a nap I think. I would like to think otherwise, but I have no other explanation for it. On multiple occasions, I have addressed a particular person who is on the call, only to be met with complete silence. How so? If you were on the call and paying an ounce of attention, you would only need a split second to unmute your mic and join the call (as described in our second article on conference calls, named ‘Participating Productively‘). You could be bored beyond your wits, you probably disagree with the view that is being voiced or your mind may have wandered towards the kitchen; whatever your reason may be – it just ain’t good enough! You are on the call to serve a purpose – so listen!

Don’t Make People Call or PM You

If you suddenly go missing from the call, others on the call may have to call or text you to get you to return to the conference call. This is the height of indiscipline and lack of respect for the others. If this ever happened to me, I would be embarrassed to show my face in public for at least a fortnight. Just imagine someone calling you on your mobile phone to ask you where you are when their screen says that you are online and connected to the call! It is pretty pathetic if you ask me. However, if this happens due to a technical issue or due to some inevitable reason, please apologise for your absence as soon as you return to the call. Not being on the call and not apologising make you look like you have no etiquette whatsoever – definitely not the path that we here at Full of Etiquette want you to take.

With the future being as uncertain as it is, conference calls look like they are here to stay and bully us more often than we would like to. Help your community to flatten the curve, work from home and carry out conference calls. Help your colleagues, superiors and even your subordinates by going through our articles and following the simple rules of etiquette we have laid out. to make your conference calls better for everyone.