Muting you

posted June 9th, 2020 at 10:14 AM

One of my colleagues always has annoying background noise or his kids screaming in the background, but never bothers to mute himself when he's not talking (I guess he thinks it's cute - and besides, I'm sure his partner could take the kids for the five minutes he talks on these calls). Thanks to Microsoft Teams, we can mute him ourselves, and several of us have been doing it for him - I know this because I go to mute him and it'll already be done. I feel bad that it upsets him, but noise pollution is a real problem.

6 Comments

This is passive aggressive behaviour

Jun 9, 2020 at 12:42pm

on your part OP.
Jesus, just tell this person about his annoying background noise.
No one at your company has any backbone?

@passive aggressive behaviour

Jun 9, 2020 at 2:27pm

If this person is so inconsiderate that they don't realize that there's a reason people are muting him, I'm not sure there's a benefit to addressing it directly. YOU might be capable of thinking of others, but not everyone is capable of keeping their ego in check when given feedback.

He sounds

Jun 9, 2020 at 7:09pm

Like a clueless tool.

just tell him

Jun 9, 2020 at 11:38pm

He has small kids? He’s probably completely unaware that there is background noise. He’s probably able to tune it out. Just tell him. You and your coworkers seem like passive little twits. Maybe he’s not muting himself because he hates you all.

The mute button

Jun 10, 2020 at 11:18am

on the TV is a wonderful invention. Haven't watched an ad in years.

@@passive aggressive behaviour

Jun 11, 2020 at 11:07pm

Assuming the reasoning for their behaviour just adds to the total miscommunication here. You’re making a HUGE problem, where there probably isn’t any. If you want to rectify problem, TALK TO HIM.
It’s true, people with kids learn to block out the background noise, let him know.