Speaker B explains how workplace norms around home office noise have shifted since COVID. Instead of treating background sounds as major interruptions, just ask people to mute themselves if it gets bad. The key is normalizing distractions rather than pausing meetings to apologize for them.
Marine's asking, like, how do you maintain the focus during virtual team meetings when there are so many distractions? Do you guys have strategies to deal with that?
Yeah, so I think pre-COVID, everyone was so obsessed with the fact that I'm working from home and I cannot have a distraction or an interruption, right? If somebody walked behind me, it was like the end of the world. If my phone rang or the mailman was knocking at the door, it was like, oh, I'm sorry, like, let me take care of this, you know. Post-COVID, we all have it constantly, right? So I think it's one of the better things that has come out of the COVID situation is just normalizing everyone working from home, right? Somebody walks behind you, big deal, ignore it, move on. There's no reason for everyone to stop the meeting and be like, oh, I see somebody walk behind you, or oh, I hear the baby crying. Just keep going. Just don't make the person stop and apologize. Just keep moving through the meeting. If it's something that's becoming so bad that nobody can get any work done, you just ask them to mute themselves. You know, hey, can you mute real quick so that we can get through this? Most people that will be in remote work will know that. My baby's crying in the background, I'm definitely gonna mute myself and be like, I'll be right back, you know? So I think just accepting that part as, you know, that's part of the normal and, you know, not forcing people to apologize. Don't stop and take time to recognize it, just move on. Keep moving and you'll be fine. You'll be able to go through, go through your meetings.
