I can’t believe how many virtual meetings in the last three years that people are still sharing their screens.
People seem to share their screens in 3 situations:
- Showing or explaining a document. Whether it be a slideshow or written document, people seem obsessed with idea that no one else knows how to read or that they write just as incompetently as they present.
- Explaining procedure. I get it, things can be complicated. Learn to screen record.
- Collaboration. Most conferencing apps have a whiteboard or other document creation apps have real time collaboration. You just don’t want to use these things because you want to be in 100% control of what’s being written down. You don’t want a meeting, go do your own things, if you feel obligated to turn it into a meeting you just want attention.
We all have a limited time on this earth. We’re not going to remember or care about the meetings in a year or two. Go find something meaningful to do with your life. Stop sharing your screen, and even better yet, don’t have the meeting at all. We’re not going to look back at the end of our lives and wish we’d had more meetings.
I don’t use teams, but hard disagree. My team screenshares all the time for pair programming, and even for regular meetings, screen sharing a slide deck or basic agenda is helpful for focusing conversation. I have presented before without sharing a screen and things go off the rails really quick. Focusing attention on the topics being discussed helps keep things as brief and efficient as possible. Presenting an agenda and topics also shows professionalism and that you are trying to respect people’s time by keeping things focused.
If it’s an actually useless meeting… Just don’t go? It’s not that hard.