Working remotely is wonderful! It is certainly a perk in this industry, and modern technology makes it that much more feasible for us to work for clients anywhere. Technology however is very fickle. It can be our ally when it is working smoothly, or our enemy when it is temperamental and we are facing deadlines. Through this technology, we also connect to our coworkers via conference and video calls. I was perusing the internet one day and came across this picture that made me literally LOL (laugh out loud)! I knew I had to share it on the next management video conference call.
Take a look at the hand-drawn conference call bingo card. How many times have you heard some of these things? How many times have you experienced or said some of these lines? I count about a dozen of these items I am either guilty of or have heard someone say on a conference call. Sometimes during video calls, one of my cats will walk across my desk and hog the camera! It can certainly be frustrating when technology is not working in our favor, we are all on a tight schedule and have a million other things to attend to after we’re off the conference call we are on. It is easy to want to pull up something else to work on and place ourselves on mute; we may be irritated because the call might not be going smoothly or it runs longer than normal.
Being remote, when we are on conference calls we must remember that this is a time for us to come together and reconnect since we are not all physically in the same location. This is our time to brainstorm with the team, to share victories and hard lessons, to educate and encourage one another. We should strive to focus on the purpose of the call and be in the moment, despite whatever comes along with the call. But we also need to remember to have some humor in our lives! So, when it has been a crazy day where you feel like you’ve been on call after call all day… think of this bingo card, what your counterparts are going through, and what the intention of the call is.
Written By Kim A. Rodriguez, RHIT, CTR