Zoom calls are awful, but we really do make it worse than it needs to be.
First by having too many, thinking that more of them will make up for the terrible quality. Instead, have as few as possible, keep them on topic, short, and try to limit the participant count so people can actually converse without all the awkward interruptions.
Then, companies should send all employees really high quality microphones, monitors, real office chairs, etc, and pay for the highest quality internet connection available. They're going to save all this money on real estate for office space, they can damn well afford to appoint employees' home office with good hardware.
I'm especially sold on the microphone part. Much of what makes zoom calls tiring is the constant effort you spend trying to decipher what someone just said when their audio is cutting in and out, and even in the best case they're using the earpods that came with their phone. A low latency connection and a basic $100 podcast microphone would be a big improvement for most people.
First by having too many, thinking that more of them will make up for the terrible quality. Instead, have as few as possible, keep them on topic, short, and try to limit the participant count so people can actually converse without all the awkward interruptions.
Then, companies should send all employees really high quality microphones, monitors, real office chairs, etc, and pay for the highest quality internet connection available. They're going to save all this money on real estate for office space, they can damn well afford to appoint employees' home office with good hardware.
I'm especially sold on the microphone part. Much of what makes zoom calls tiring is the constant effort you spend trying to decipher what someone just said when their audio is cutting in and out, and even in the best case they're using the earpods that came with their phone. A low latency connection and a basic $100 podcast microphone would be a big improvement for most people.