When Your Meeting Gets Hijacked

We are all working from home. For the foreseeable future.

Along with the new realities that come with converting your dining table to your office desk and having to complete home chores during the lunch break, we are also having to redraw the lines of engagement.

We have all faced disruptions or have disrupted at some time or the other, a zoom meeting in progress. There you are freshly shaved and suited on camera talking in earnest with your offshore team on deliverables when your toddler furiously pedals past with his sister in tow. By now, the dog who is otherwise well behaved starts barking too and you are absolutely red in the face at the melee unfolding behind you.

The internet is awash with hilarious instances of kids hovering in the background during a virtual meeting, or pet cats sauntering in to take a swipe at the camera in the middle of serious negotiation. Children are also very adept at negotiating, asking for chocolates, or extra TV time when parents are at their most vulnerable.

An unexpected doorbell or an occasional ringing of the phone can be ignored. However, when the perpetrator continues the comical act in the middle of a meeting with people you report to, it can be embarrassing. And perhaps frustrating for the others.

Should you show your displeasure?   

Meetings don’t necessarily have to be so stiff upper-lipped. We are all having to face the new reality of working from our living rooms and kitchen tables. And with the kind of adverse news one keeps hearing throughout the day, a bit of laugh never harmed anyone.

Brief interludes like these can be used to break the ice, even. Spend a few minutes indulging the ‘disruptor.’ Talk to the child, humor your colleague, put them at ease (unless of course, it is a spouse, hopping mad at the dirty dishes piled up in the kitchen).

With schools shut for summer and kids being forced to stay indoors all day, it is natural for them to wander into your ‘office,’ looking for you. However, if the incessant barking of a dog or the continuous bawling of a child shows no sign of abating, make your team member aware of the need to step away. How to discipline your toddler to stop interrupting you, is another discussion altogether.

As far as possible, be flexible, be sensitive with your team. These are unprecedented times.

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Author: Dr. Anjana Das