I would never accept a job that required a zoom interview. If you don’t have time to meet me why should I work for you?

You get to see my home office and workspace in the background. It's about the same as my work office when I had one. Yeah, it's cluttered with papers, books, computer hardware. Deal with it.

Anonymous wrote:

Ugh, I find all the blurring and fake backgrounds so annoying. They are not “professional.”

This. It looks as if someone is trying to hide something.

I did a job interview over Zoom during COVID with my (made) bed in the background. I live in a one-bedroom apartment and my desk setup is in my bedroom. I did apologize at the beginning. I got the job.

It would be weird in a meeting with customers, but I also wasn't working at home by choice, and didn't have another place to do this sort of thing. Job interviews would be in person now and I work in an office full-time.

I’ve had Zoom calls with people who have roommates and the only private room they have is a bedroom. I have zero problem with a tidy bedroom/ made bed in the background.

I agree that fake picture backgrounds are unprofessional but there's dozens of reasons why someone may need to take a virtual call from somewhere that's not a professional space. So long as some effort has been made into making it look tidy I'm fine.

To me, seeing a bed in the background shows a lack of effort. Could you not just sit with your back toward a wall?

PP here. I have a wide desk and it is too big to rotate to face away from a wall.

I am fine with the professional backgrounds. Is there an option to blur those a bit?

To me, seeing a bed in the background shows a lack of effort. Could you not just sit with your back toward a wall?

Ugh, I find all the blurring and fake backgrounds so annoying. They are not “professional.”

This. It looks as if someone is trying to hide something.

I did a job interview over Zoom during COVID with my (made) bed in the background. I live in a one-bedroom apartment and my desk setup is in my bedroom. I did apologize at the beginning. I got the job.

It would be weird in a meeting with customers, but I also wasn't working at home by choice, and didn't have another place to do this sort of thing. Job interviews would be in person now and I work in an office full-time.

I don't use a background, I just sit with my back to a blank wall. But I don't think a tidy made bed is unprofessional.

The worst is when somebody is backlit by a very bright window.

I'm fine with blurring, but the fake backgrounds are very distracting.

Ugh, I find all the blurring and fake backgrounds so annoying. They are not “professional.”

I just talked to someone with a bed in the background this week! I often see pets or people in the house in the background.

On a call yesterday one of the people was on a phone and we could only see his mouth and chin. But the background was fine.

Giant blowup of Matisse painting as background.

Beach scene with sand, umbrella blanket. Except there is a dog in the background taking a poop. Showed up right over the speakers left shoulder and looked it was pooping on the guys shirt.

In my experience at a Fortune 100 company, I've noticed that most people are very professional and use a professional background in their Zoom/Teams meetings and interviews. It's so easy to have a professional background because all you need to do is use one of the standard backgrounds (or just blur your own background).

However, I have seen a few "unprofessional" backgrounds, especially when interviewing candidates for entry-level positions.

What is the worst you've seen?

Here is a small sample of what I've seen:

1. Someone with a bed in the background. (The room was tidy, but still.)
2. Someone who looked like they were taking the call from a basement storage room (or very cluttered basement).
3. Someone in a child's bedroom (or perhaps their own childhood bedroom) with a teddy bear wallpaper border on the walls

I feel bad for these candidates, as they may not realize that they come off as not putting in much effort if they cannot be bothered to blur their background? I'm a chill person, but this is a workplace situation, and not a personal meeting/call. Maybe it's just lack of experience in the working world?