I am on a lot of conference calls. Some for work, many for SWE. At least once a week I have to sit through an hour or more of people talking at one another. I often have something to add but typically I’m sitting and listening.
I hate telecons. With a passion.
Most services are poor so you interrupt the other speakers when you speak vs being able to hear two people at once. This results in two people trying to talk at the same time, stopping to be polite, then starting to talk again. Plus there’s the horrible silences when no one talks/responds because they’re all on mute. And, really, most of my conference calls should really be webinars – they’re for information passing with occasional input rather than true working meetings. Working meetings, okay, but info sessions with slides – that could be emailed. But, of course, only if you read them the slides can you guarentee they hear you (notice I didn’t say listen).
(Don’t worry – tomorrow’s post will feature a knitting FO and not a text-only rant.)
