I'm missing out on the best part of the stay-at-home order.

[MarkLT1]

Seriously. Just find a cool Zoom background she finds professional enough.

I don't know if the lighting is good enough, as it is all "blobby" for lack of a better term around her head when we do the "without a green screen" option, and occasionally it cuts out and complains that "your computer isn't powerful enough, please use a green screen." We have many things, but a green screen is not one of them.

(we have actually tried a lot to make it work, between angling, trying the virtual backgrounds, etc.. so think of this more of a "laughing at myself" rant than an actual complaint.)

 

[L&Lfan]

I thought you were going say your TV was broken! I never thought no pants .

 

[MarkLT1]

I thought you were going say your TV was broken! I never thought no pants .

Have you ever closed an amazing and lucrative dream consulting contract, while sipping coffee with no pants on?
(I bet it is as amazing as it sounds!)

 

[L&Lfan]

Have you ever closed an amazing and lucrative dream consulting contract, while sipping coffee with no pants on?
(I bet it is as amazing as it sounds!)

No, but it kind of turns me on!

 

[sailorstitch]

What about some kind of room divider or a dressing screen. Something that you can fold up and put away when you don't need it.

 

[Starwind]

We've tried. Its an interesting office setup- the built-in where she is working is a built-in corner desk (it is a very strange setup we inherited when we bought this house). If we turn her webcam (which for some reason seems to be the widest angle webcam in existence) all the way to the left, she can kind of push up against the edge of the corner desk (to keep herself centered), and if I scoot all the way over to the right side of my desk, I can *just* get off the side of the frame.. but its not really comfortable for either of us. So in the meantime, I'll be the business casual pant legs sticking out from under the desk in the background, and jokingly complain about it on the DIS boards.

If anyone knows of a way for zoom to crop the video size, I am all ears.. I spent way too much time looking through the settings unsuccessfully.

(I really want to gut the weird corner desk thing, and make a nice shelving unit for the printer, etc.. but am quite glad I hadn't done so before she needed to start working from home).

What about rigging a divider/screen of some kind ? Even a curtain or solid shower curtain or sheet strung between two objects or (if light enough) 3M Command Hooks would work. Gives her a background and a barrier between her and any other activity in the room. If you rig something portable it can be moved out of the way when not needed.

SW

 

[Dole_whip_doll]

I’m known to be to goofy one (sometimes) and we have one zoom meeting each week. The first week I used a picture of that scary clown from inside the horror makeup show at Universal Orlando. It looked like he was peeking around my shoulder. When others asked what it was I kept saying I didn’t know what they were talking about, it was a picture of the “Epcot ball” whatever.

The second week I didn’t use a virtual background but wore an ears headband the whole time.

I keep telling myself, if he have to do these (which could be done in an email because you tell us all to mute ourselves anyway) might as well make it fun!

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I just started working from home. We don't have the zoom thing, at least not yet. It would not surprise me if our company used the camera in the laptop to spy on us though. The background is just our basement. It was nice working in a sweatshirt and leggings, not gonna lie

The one thing I did not count on is having to wrestle with my cat most of the day. She will get behind the screen and look over at me, walk across the keyboard, climb on me, get in behind me in the chair, and then bite me when I try to move her.

 

[wildride]

OK I am now officially jealous. We both have to actually get dressed & go to work, hmmm maybe I'll ask my boss if I can wear PJs to work

 

[Sabeking]

My friend was telling me the other day that a teacher at her school was doing zoom with her students ; I think 3rd grade when her husband walked out of the shower and into the bedroom where she was presenting at her desk. Yes...he was wearing nothing! Needless to say there is a whole thing now about how the school will present online!

 

[soccerdad72]

I think my teenagers would have more of an issue with me working from home without pants on than anyone else.

 

[pryncess527]

You just need some fancy business pajamas

 

[MarkLT1]

I'm happy to report- my lovely wife only has one call today, and it is with a friend of ours who she works with. So I get my PJ Pant/no socks day today!! Yay!

Also, looking for some formal business pajamas.. google results are... interesting.

 

[NotUrsula]

I think you need pipe-and-drape. A simple movable curtain room divider; it would probably cut down on distractions, too.

One of my colleagues used Zoom's virtual background to put himself on Tattoine. during our first all-team Zoom meeting. Our boss was Not. Amused. (The majority of the people who use virtual backgrounds now have gone to the bookshelf background, but most of us actually keep the video off, as it cuts down on bandwidth and makes the transmission smoother.)

 

[wishuponastar1984]

I would find something that blocks you from the frame. If your wife is the one who is mostly presenting then she needs a non distracting background and having someone in the background would be incredibly distracting. I would find some sort of table your wife could use as a desk and set it up in another room with a decent office chair. I have been on zoom calls a lot and have optimized my space so that I have simple clean area as a backdrop, propped my laptop on a stand so that the angle is better, use a wireless keyboard and a ring light behind the laptop to help with the light. I am not kidding when I searched for YouTube videos on how to look better on a video conference.

 

[Wendy5055]

Have her add a Zoom virtual background picture. Then you don't get seen at all and can wear PJs to your heart's content.

What would be hilarious is a zoom background fails and you see a pair of bare legs walking around in a zoom background!

 

[LouChris]

https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to/how-to-change-your-zoom-background

 

[Sakiki]

I’m eating too many Twinkies and delivered ice cream.

You can get ice cream *delivered*?!?!?

i knew there had to be something that the US does better than the UK...

 

[RamblingMad]

You can get ice cream *delivered*?!?!?

i knew there had to be something that the US does better than the UK...

Yep. It’s glorious.

 

[L&Lfan]

My friend was telling me the other day that a teacher at her school was doing zoom with her students ; I think 3rd grade when her husband walked out of the shower and into the bedroom where she was presenting at her desk. Yes...he was wearing nothing! Needless to say there is a whole thing now about how the school will present online!

Hopefully it was a biology lesson!