Remote Work Technology

CHAPTER 7Client and Team Meetings: Making the Most of It

We have discussed many ways virtual meetings can be exhausting. Zoom fatigue is a real phenomenon, and too many remote meetings can kill productivity. Some meetings need to happen to get people on the same page, but arguably, many times that can be done with other, more asymmetric methods such as a voicemail, email, or a note pinned on a virtual project board. But there are some meetings that are still necessary, and meetings are not inherently a bad thing. In fact, a good meeting can be invigorating. There is a human comfort factor involved. A good meeting makes people feel that everyone is on the same page. The official meeting, in many cases, acts as an affirmation of the team's or client's feelings that everything is on track.

As has been observed, virtual meetings lose elements that are only found in face-to-face meetings. It can take several remote communications to get across the same level of understanding you would get in a single in-person meeting. One reason is that in-person meetings and virtual meetings require different skill sets to achieve the same results. Real-world methods don't always translate well in the virtual world.

Being brought up in a multilingual household, I learned early on that many idioms and idiosyncrasies do not translate from one culture to the other. I found this to be true when working with developers in other countries. I adjust my speech and written communications to take out phrases ...