WebCam Etiquette Failures

Since COVID-19 barged its unwelcome way into our lives, the use of the ubiquitous laptop webcam for online meetings has increased a thousandfold. 

Not wearing trousers during a webcam session is OK - just remember not to stand up till the meeting is 100% over!

From TV journalists working on location, to large corporations attempting to host departmental meetings for workers that choose to stay at home, to teachers and students trying to maintain study despite not being allowed to go to school, right down to your grandparents trying to catch up with their grand kids despite being in forced lock down.

It's a trying time for all of us. But one thing I have noticed is the terrible way how people present themselves on camera in the public domain.

Back in the day, if you were called upon to comment, discuss or present an item for an audience you'd most likely spend some time either primping yourself to look good on camera or maybe even have a makeup artist attend to the worst of your physical flaws.

But for me the worst offence is simply that webcammers rarely bother to arrange the laptop so the camera at the top of the screen is parallel with the speaker's face. The up the nose result is a very unflattering. 
 

Say no more...

If you make a video for broadcast most people would use a tripod and frame the subject pretty much at right angles to the lens - but those using a laptop simply tilt the screen back giving us a perfect view right up the speaker's nose.

How to fix this? Very simple: slide two fat books under the notebook, use a shoe box, telephone directories...

Cat interrupts web conference

Other webcam no-no's to avoid

• Backlighting - what are you thinking! Have the light on your face NOT on the back of the laptop screen
• Muting the mic - slagging off the presenter with the microphone ON is not only rude, but unprofessional
• Personal presentation - trakky-dakkies are not acceptable!
• Background - let's not see your undies hanging on the back of a chair in the background
• Attitude: Being drunk. Say no more. Dozing, or falling asleep on-camera is also a strict no-no
• Doing something other than paying attention. Picking your nose or finishing your breakfast at 11am is never a good look...
  
   

  

  Business meeting bombed by man's stay at home kids