An executive’s post on dealing with con-calls at home finds acceptance globally

Asking people not to worry or feel embarrassed about having kids and pets feature in the background, the executive wrote, "calls are boring and they need background music like your kids screaming or your dog barking. These are sounds of life ..."

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Many people around the globe are working from home currently and video calls are more often than not being interrupted by kids in the background.

As more people across the world work from home to slow the spread of COVID-19, there is no shortage of challenges as people have pointed out before. Working parents have children at home since educational institutes have been closed in many nations, while others may have pets, and that means getting complete silence during a conference call is quite hard. Which might explain why one executive’s message on how to deal with it is being shared widely.

In his post on LinkedIn, Ramez Mohsen-Fawzi, who’s Managing Director of Janssen NAF in Middle-East and North Africa, argued that it was fine to have children and pet sounds in the background during a call.

“It’s ok if your kids voices appear on one of your calls! Guess what? It’s actually their home and their space and they’re deprived from sport activities and schooling, so the least we can do is to accept that situation!” he wrote.

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Asking people not to worry or feel embarrassed about kids and pets appearing in background, he wrote, “calls are boring and they need background music like your kids screaming or your dog barking. These are sounds of life …”

Read the full post here:

The post comes at a time, when social media is abuzz with posts where parents are saying how difficult it is to have a full-time job and manage kids while being stuck at home. Many shared stories how video calls have been particularly difficult with children not understanding the gravity of it, while some shared shared how their ‘new colleagues failed‘.

It is very difficult to work from home with kids. I’m expected to home school and mind a toddler, manage 4 conference calls a day, at least. Put the kids to sleep and carry on working. Childcare is work and a full time job, it’s why I pay someone to do it. https://t.co/g5EviX21TC

— Monica (@monicauiduill) March 19, 2020

I’m on day 4 of self-isolation with 3 young children, 6, 5 and 3. It’s hard, my mental health is being tested as I am still expected to work from home, doing emails, conference calls etc. Doing that and trying to look after my children. This is only going to get harder.

— Dilly Lidder (@littlelidder) March 19, 2020

My kid fell off a chair while I was on a work call so working from home is super effective.

— Nicole Burgess (@NBurgess0) March 19, 2020

During work-from-home conference calls, I like to play the “whisper game” with the kids to see who can be the quietest.

They both usually lose. 🤦🏼‍♀️

— Trish Hartman (@TrishHartman) March 19, 2020

My discovery today? There can’t be any happy kids at home because all the adults trying to work have pinched their gaming headphones for conference calls! Admiration to the senior Policing official conferencing from a playroom with tank commander headphones #inittogether #COVID19

— Joanna Goddard (@JCGoddard) March 19, 2020

Let’s have a little Work From Home fun: Tell me something your kids did, but call them your coworkers.

My coworkers don’t flush. It’s unsanitary. #HRShenanigans #HRSocialHour #QuarantineFun #coronapocolypse #HRCommunity #WFH pic.twitter.com/NN20YdZi7g

— Kyra Matkovich, SHRM-CP (@KyraMatkovichHR) March 19, 2020

Work from home with 3 kids is funny! While on a conference call, one slides me this for permission to get oranges 🤔🙃. The baby just outright asks for the orange. I can’t be bribed for oranges!!! At least not while on a work call. #workingfromhome pic.twitter.com/QlHfW1uhLC

— Mandele Davis (@MandeleDavis) March 17, 2020

After long trauma week, off to bang up start to #SocialDistancingNow with kids home until 4/17.

Left work email open in kitchen and find this…..call admin, IT, etc. is this spam??
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“No that came from your home laptop”. Thanks kids!!🤣🤣🤣#theappledoesntfallfarfromthetree pic.twitter.com/19jdnKyHkC

— Mark Seamon (@MarkSeamonMD) March 17, 2020

As the post by Mohsen-Fawzi went viral across social media sites, many agreed with him and thanked him.

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