I have a phobia about participating
on a conference call and unfortunately
these dreaded conference calls are scheduled
on a regular basis at my place of employment.
First of all, I can't stand hearing
several voices and being unsure of
who's speaking and where they're speaking
from. Even worse, is when one person
tries to talk over another. It's completely
confusing and annoying. When I'm talking
to a single person on a regular phone
call, I don't have this problem. But
when I'm tapped in to participate
in a conference call, trying to match
names up with voices drives me crazy.
Sometimes the organizer of the call
will think ahead and send out a list
of all participants. Even better,
sometimes one poor soul will be given
the task of keeping notes which are
then distributed to all participants.
If I had my say, I'd just receive
those notes and skip the conference
call altogether.
At work, every Tuesday morning they
have something called a 'round table'.
Except, we are not meeting at a real
round table. We are crowded around
a conference phone in my boss's office,
straining to hear comments made by
other members of our team spread across
the country, no doubt crowded around
their boss's desk straining to hear
what we have to say.
Just recently, my work invested in
a video conferencing system. At first
I thought this was a great idea that
would put an end to my frustration
with our regular conference calls.
At least with a video conferencing
system, we could see who was saying
what.
However, after our first video conference,
I was even more ill-at-ease. We all
spent that hour trying not to look
at the screen so as to avoid our own
images, while peering out of the corner
of our eyes, trying to get a gander
at whomever was speaking at that instant.
We all found the video conference
call even more unnerving that a regular
conference call.
In my mind, conference calls tend
to mostly be a big waste of time.
Generally, one or two people blather
on while the rest of the team zones
out, only offering token comments
when absolutely necessary. When conference
calls are deemed absolutely necessary,
in my opinion they should be kept
short and sweet and to the point.
Much valuable time is wasted, it's
a bad way to start your day if you
have misgivings or personal hang-ups
about conference calls, and most of
the information shared is usually
not pertinent to more than one or
two individuals participating in the
call.
