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David is an occasional blogger, software engineer, Nintendo fanboy, liberal, news magazine addict, voracious TiVo user, and bibliophile. He was born in St. Louis, grew up in southern Indiana, and returned to St. Louis to attend Washington University. He hasn't managed to escape yet. He's a fan of free wine tastings, too many tv shows to name, and eating out. David makes his living developing web applications used internally by his employer. He doesn't blog about work because he's heard too many stories about that causing workplace troubles. There's more on the about page. |
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28 April 2004 - 2:08 pm
I don't like teleconferences. They aren't too bad in a one-on-one situation, but if there are a bunch of people at each end of the phone, they just become unworkable. Its tough to make a point because you can't use visual cues to indicate that you'd like to interject. I often find that one side of the phone conversation dominates the discussion simply because they start talking first and the people on the other side can never get a word in.
The technology used for the teleconference can make a big difference in the meeting quality as well. I'm sure you've all seen the big teleconference phones: they're often triangular and sit flat on a table. The better ones have extension mics that can be run to either end of a long table. These things are worth their weight in gold. No one has to shout to be heard and no one has to sit with their ears near the phone in order to hear when these things are employed at both ends of the meeting. Normal phones with a speakerphone option are fine when one or two people are talking at each end, but if you have four or more people, they just aren't enough.
So, in summary, I wish I didn't have to participate in so many teleconferences.
Posted by on 28 April 2004 at 2:08 PM
Comments
At Stifel they had "operators" to coordinate conference calls. If you wanted to ask a question, you'd push a button to flag the operator lady, and she would wait until one person finished talking and then announce that so-and-so had a question. It made the interrupting issue not as much of a problem, but the conference calls were still unpleasant.
Posted by Chris Hill Festival on 28 April 2004 - 2:51 PM
We had weekly ones when I worked at A&D Watch (though they were for Oil & Gas Investor). I was always silent, because I wasn't really part of the conversation to begin with; my boss just thought it would be good for me to hear what the Denver staff thought about stuff.
But this one time, we had a terrible day-long call with the Denver people. My boss and I put them on hold, got Chinese food and came back maybe an hour later and they were still talking about the same thing. Ugh.
Posted by Rachel on 28 April 2004 - 5:15 PM
I agree, it's a dreadful, sensory-deprivational experience.
Posted by rkc on 1 May 2004 - 8:03 AM