Why you should mute on online meetings
Some of you have done online meetings in the past… but with the current situation all around the world a lot more people are forced to meet online.
A lot of meeting rules you know from “old school” face two face meetings also belong to online meetings.
- only one person talking
- hear out other people
- be friendly
- even on controvers discussions: do not offend
- you name it…
But there is one thing completely new to you if you haven’t joined online meetings before…
Mute when you don’t speak!
But why?
These are just some aspects you should know about:
1) Your breathing is annoying
That’s not a problem on telephone on a direct conversation. Either you are speaking or you are listening (and you can’t hear you own breathing). But in an online meeting with a lot of people all other would here the “speaker” talking and you breathing — depending on your breath-loudness and the quality of your microphone this could really be disruptive the whole meeting!
2) Nature sounds are fine
But not during a meeting! It’s perfect for you sitting in homeoffice with some lovely view into your garden and hear some birds singing. But during an important discussion about the actual company profit there should not be a bird chirp “Highway to hell” in the background.
3) Typing protocol
If you are the lucky guy to protocol a meeting the sound of your keyboard should not be part of the conversation! A “klack klack klackklack klack” all the time get’s on the nerves of all attending people.
Another positive aspect — if the meeting is boring you could just play some tetris an nobody will recognize your cool keyboard flips to erase the next row when you mute your microphone ;-)
4) Your kids (or partner)
Your breathing is very calm… you do not have any nature around you (unlucky guy…) but you are not alone at home (or even in the office). Muting your microphone when you don’t speak reduces the probability that your kids just scream “daaaaad… my sister is so stupid — I want to have the pink pencil!”
For sure — most other joining the online meeting will just start laughing or at least grin about this. But do you want to grin them every 5 Minutes?
5) Sneeze or cough
You don’t have to be ill — sometimes you just have to sneeze or cough. But please — mute! If you don’t know why wait until you hear someone who doesn’t mute!
And just some “pro tip”: don’t sneeze into your microphone — even if you are mute ;-)
But at the end: Don’t forget to umute if you wanna say something ;-)
I’m sure there are a lot more points on muting your microphone in an online meeting — please comment and discuss.
