Conference Calls

not_the_dj

If you do meetings by conference call at your workplace you might find this amusing...

PolarityMan

I have a call in 30 mins where I am trying to reduce the number of conference calls we have between teams as the sheer volume is starting to get ridiculous.

Getting to the point where you need these sort of meta-conference calls is clearly ridiculous

stickyfiddle

I feel like I spend half my life on conference calls. This is all true.

chillidoggy

I've been lucky to have experienced only one conference call. It was shite, just a noisy rabble, with no order, and a complete waste of my time.

not_the_dj

We have one each week. One guy phoning in from Denmark, a couple of sales guys on the road somewhere, a few of us in the office...and some other homeworkers. 

Everything in that vid happens regularly.

EricTheWeary

I have a weekly one but now we do it as a video link and get to look up each other's noses.

frankus

We have conference calls so regularly, there's now a sport of listening to other peoples calls to shame them if everyone is on the same floor (not even the same building, city or country)... that said getting meeting rooms isn't easy and if someone wants to record a webex and replay it, it's a better meetign format.

Skipped

Something I used to really hate:
Getting up at 5-30 am, getting into a car I have never driven before, setting off in the dark on a 100 mile Motorway journey, using a satnav I am unfamiliar with.......feeling.....a bit sleepy.  :-O

I worked for a major  European company for many years and I doubt that there was a bigger advocate for  video conferencing than me.

TTony

OK, OK, OK, so I'm sorry about the dogs.

stickyfiddle

In my defence, almost every conference call I've had has involved at least multiple cities, and usually mulitple countries, which makes them fairly essential. Sadly still a PITA though.

vasselmeyer

When I'm not in front of customers, I live my professional life in conference calls. They have saved my company unbelievable amounts of money in terms of travel costs. When people are used to them and with the right software tools you can be just as productive as you can face to face.

PolarityMan

Am currently dialled in now to a call entirely in French, Im expecting at some point ill be asked for 5 mins of input in English. Sadly it's a custoemr or I wouldnt be putting up with this nonsense!

Snap

yeah, we use them quite a lot. I find they are OK on internal stuff, where you know who you are dealing with, and how they work. WHere I find them tricky is with foreign clients I am not so familiar with. Or, with any clients and the subject matter is confrontational. By its nature, my work is critical, and we are often challenging the way things are done - I prefer to do that face to face, even if it means a massive round trip for an hour or two meeting.

holnrew

They sound horrible. But I'd also hate doing it in person.

Talking to people isn't my thing.

monquixote

At the moment a feature of mine is being in the middle of a detailed technical point with a customer and having "DADDY DADDY I'VE DONE A POO!!!" in the background.

Roland

I spend more and more of my working life on conference calls, and couldn't bring myself to watch the clip. It's one of the things I won't miss when I eventually get around to retiring.

roundthebend

We have a team at work with a couple of members that dial in for the entire day, thus having a 7 hour conference call. They also share screens and control each others keyboards to collaborate on software. It's pretty damn effective to be honest.

duotone

Cheers, made me laugh. Happily we are based in 1 office so I don't have to bother with them.

Deadman

I'm gonna be really boring and say that ours are really well structured. We're all over the UK and in the South Atlantic but have the benefit of knowing one another well.
Funny vid though!

Deadman

holnrew said:

They sound horrible. But I'd also hate doing it in person.

Talking to people isn't my thing.

I nominate you for the safety moment Holnrew
)