Program Manager
3 Rules of Videoconferencing Etiquette
This is a time where many employers are allowing employees to work from home. Some of us love it and others not so much. If you want a chance to shine and open the door for an ongoing flexible schedule, three rules of etiquette apply:
1. Sit up straight and focus on the meeting. Intent listening sets you up to solve the voiced, silenced and silent problems. Position yourself to shine and have good posture while you’re at it. Posture shows confidence and grace. It also kicks your attractiveness up a notch. A little eye candy never hurt nobody.
2. Don’t talk to hear yourself talk. Dominating meetings with gibberish ain’t it. Add to the conversation and aim to contribute. “Give and it shall be given unto you.” Avoid asking questions that will put your boss on the spot. If you have a question about your individual work situation, wait to discuss one-on-one. If you have feedback that will help the team by all means articulate a confident recommendation or ask thought-provoking questions. The answer might solve a company or departmental issue. Otherwise, hold onto your silence, focus and open up those ear canals until you cook up something yummy to share.
3. Show your face. Sure, videoconferencing has a feature to hide your face but please use it sparingly. If your goal is to shine and achieve more flexibility, accountability is showing up—with your face not a selfie, avatar, name or sunken place square. I’ve actually almost gone into the sunken place gazing at that square, and you will be judged if your boss takes that journey too often. The sunken place is for extenuating situations, and shade throwing moments. In the latter case, it’ll keep the shade contained. Besides, the visual helps connections and moral during this time. If you don’t like your surroundings use the settings to change your background. If you don’t like your hair—do it—before the meeting.
4. Bonus rule: Avoid throwing shade in the meeting even if someone else is the antagonist. It looks ten times worse on videoconference and you don’t want to depict a RHOA reunion at work. Nip the shade by inviting the other person to take the convo offline, at a later time. That way you avoid the stigma of throwing shade and you politely check the antagonist without looking played. Instead you slay, all day.
Armed with the rules of videoconferencing etiquette, will you keep ‘em or sweep ‘em?
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I am consumed with thoughts of anger and resentment for a former employer who humiliated and hurt me by treating me really unfairly - I would go as far as to say cruelly.
I am trying to let it all go and focus on positive thoughts about both myself and my future. It seems harboring negative thoughts and revenge fantasies are a waste of energy and also get me nowhere. These negative thoughts certainly don't help me feel better. Does anyone have advice about letting terrible work experiences go? And moving on?
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You never know which recruiter you'll get
i had multiple interviews so I thoroughly prepared by researching and creating my scripts.
1st interview: The recruiter was welcoming and asked all the questions I prepared.
2nd interview: The recruiter read the job description again and gave a brief history about the company before asking my availability to meet the hiring manager.Script wasn't needed but still great that I made it
3rd interview: Recruiter was invisible because I was ghosted
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Hello!
I recently started a new job and it is fantastic. My boss is great....to a fault. He is very open to my ideas and really respects my opinion. However, I can tell he is just bursting at the seams with a desire to overshare about his past, his ex-wife and stuff like that.
I have a lot of respect for him, and because of that, I really don't want to know this stuff. I think a therapist would be better. When he starts bringing it up, I try to change the subject or not respond.
Sometimes I just want to tell him that because I respect him I think talking with someone outside the workplace might be better. Has anyone gone through this - what has worked and what were the results?
Thank you Fairygodboss community!
1 Like • 2 Comments
how should I proceed with the irresponsible and disrespectful employer?
I got hired for a contract job 2 weeks ago. The first impression was already horrible, they sent me the contract to fill out and send it back, in return they would send me the training materials and the login info for the actual job. I filled out the contract and sent it back in less than 5 minutes from receiving their email (they also required to fill out my DOB and last 4 of SSN). I didn’t receive the response for 4-5 hours and I sent a simple follow-up email just asking for a confirmation that they received my contract. The next day I got an email saying thank you for the application but we are not onboarding any more contractors. I called the company and talked to the manager saying that I already received the Congratulations email and signed the contract !!!!! Of course, after my frustrated speech about the contract and my personal info given to them, they said it was a misunderstanding and sent the training material etc. I worked on the project for 10 days, absolutely horrendous communication with them, no replies to my questions and requests. Yesterday the CEO sent me an email accusing me in lying about my geolocation and using VPN to falsely show that I am in US and they were sure I wasn’t (when I am indeed in US in my cozy house). I called and was disrespectfully told that I shouldn’t call and communicate via email only. They asked for a link of my profile in one of the social platforms for jobs and didn’t get a response from them. They are supposed to pay me today, but I haven’t received anything yet. What should I do?
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I have been asked by my full date of birth as an application identifier by several prospective employers.
This is in addition to the last 4 of my SSN
Is this legal? And isn’t this asking for having your identity stolen?
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How do we get rid of toxic teammates?
I joined this team a little over a year ago, and unfortunately, I think we’re going under. We have two problem people on our team. The first one, I’ll call Bob, and the second one is his manager, Sally.
Bob appears to have no specific accountabilities, which results in him being all over the place and having his hands in others’ accountabilities (in a sneaky way). He has been given feedback about this behavior from nearly everyone on the team, and most of us really dislike working with him. Additionally, Bob does not actually execute any work. He talks, talks, talks - but no actual execution can actually be attributed to him.
The problem is, his manager is the same person, and they knew each other from a previous role which is why he was hired. His manager will not correct his behaviors, and his manager spends most of her time competing with other team members at her level.
We will be going through a reorganization soon, and not only am I terrified of losing my job, I’m terrified that somehow Bob and Sally will come out on top.
Is there anything that can be done?
2 Likes • 4 Comments
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