Will anyone wave hello? GM won’t.
Screenshot of ZDNet
It may become numb after a while.
You go from one meeting to the next, trying to recall what was just said in the last meeting and what the next meeting was even about.
When the pandemic hits, the numbness enjoys a different tune.
Suddenly, you’re stuck in front of the screen for hours at a time. You still struggle to get the hang of these meetings, but you’ve got the added bonus of screen fatigue. Feeling that you’ve been trapped in Groundhog Day, Metaverse Edition.
But you still want to show your bravery. So you did what everyone else did: wave goodbye at the end of every meeting. This is awkward sometimes. A Microsoft engineer even generate credits to signal the meeting is over.
As far as Microsoft is concerned, that the courtesy of waving was so last year.
In a tweet sent from the official – and sometimes amusing – account, Microsoft Was observed: “2021: lively at the end of a Team meeting. 2022: suddenly click ‘leave meeting’ before the meeting ends.”
Where before the wave seemed to indicate that we were all together and we wanted to express our warm feelings to each other, now we are thinking differently.
This Team thing is now no different from an office meeting room or a Huddle House. (Certainly some tech companies have Huddle Houses.)
We’re working, like we’ve done before, but with some new logistical hurdles.
Why bother with the goodness of Living in an Uncertain World last year when it’s supposed to be back to normal now?
Maybe we’re not together like that, after all. Maybe we’re back at work and the tools aren’t perfect yet.
Suddenly, we don’t feel like waving.
To be honest, I saw this pattern quite late. The Group Wave went the way of Mexican.
It was uplifting once. Now, that’s a touch gauche.
Now, many people don’t even want to show their face in meetings, just prefer to listen and make occasional um, ah, oh, or rush.
It’s nice that Microsoft itself realizes this. It knows Teams aren’t perfect. It sees user behavior on it, and it knows people aren’t perfect either.
Some people, however, might imagine that this painful little truth might encourage companies to bring people back to the office.
Work will be different when you are all in the same physical environment. So is life.
You can go to bad lunch places and gossip. You can whisper in the corridors and quietly watch the new alliances being formed.
And if you want to leave a meeting early, you just sound nervous, confused, or both — and just get up and go.
But walking the dog at the office is not easy, is it?
