Can We Automate Our Presence in Video Meetings?

The start of a New Year.

A new beginning.

The return of normality soon.

Regrettably, not any time soon by the way things are going.

We are stuck in this perpetual time loop of lockdown, the lifting of restrictions, and then back to lockdown again and working from home.

Rinse and repeat.

It’s taken some time to get into the groove of the new way of working — with video interviews, video meetings, etc.

There are times, in certain video meetings / zoom meetings, where our presence is required but we don’t actually contribute anything to the conversation. At times, it seems like such a monumental waste of time.

What if there was a way to automate our presence in such meetings?

A bright spark at CNET (www.cnet.com) did exactly that. He conducted an experiment where a recording took his presence in meetings with his co-workers and supervisors…… for a week!

From the simplistic meeting with zero contribution, to a meeting where he is called upon to explain his plan for the day, this really does make for fascinating viewing.

I won’t spoil the surprise as to whether his co-workers and supervisors caught him out or not. I know Bill Gates is quoted as saying ‘I choose a lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.’ But surely this is taking things a bit far.

The other thought that entered my mind was that with all the time and effort to make the videos in the first place, wouldn’t it just have been easier to do nothing and partake in another pointless meeting?

Please check out the video below, and you decide what would be best for productivity.

This post first appeared on https://itmob.co.uk/can-we-automate-our-presence-in-video-meetings/