Video Conferencing, Elderly Executives, and Unreasonable Expectations

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Daros89@reddit

> Due to my age (late 20s), when I tell him no, he assumes I just don't know the proper solution due to inexperience. When my boss tells him no, he'll actually believe her as she's older than I am. Are you me? Except I'm 34 and is still running into this, even though I have proved a hundred times over that I know what I'm talking about...

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CloudMan2323@reddit

I’ve had this with a handful of older executives. After about two years of this same situation, I just gave them an iPad because that’s the simplest device to join meetings from. Been fine ever since.

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PappaFrost@reddit

Tell me more about the "seamless error free video conferencing systems". I would love to hear more about this fictional product! LOL. I have been telling people to call someone or call me to test their audio before an important meeting to ensure that everything is working. Teams has a built in test call button. It occurs to me that almost every live music performance in the last 50 years has had some kind of a sound check. Maybe do a sound check before your critical video call?

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canadian_sysadmin@reddit

I’ve run across this as well. Definitely common with the 60+ exec crowd. Generally I end up having to (gently) explain that it’s a training issue. We put in tickets for everything so I’ll often use that for pushback as well (eg ‘we keep track of all of the issues with meeting room and trend is definitely surrounding training and familiarity issues’). There’s no silver bullet but generally we do a lot of one-on-one training sessions. I’ve noticed peer pressure helps a lot too (getting other executives on board with the fact they need training or need to put effort into learning how shit works). Also - make sure you use Teams Rooms for your conference rooms, and if you haven’t already, get your execs Teams video conference plans (whatever they’re called now) so they get traditional dial-in numbers for their own meetings. That helped me a lot with a past exec. There’s no silver bully unfortunately though.

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ComfortableProperty9@reddit

>Definitely common with the 60+ ~~exec~~ crowd. I saw this soooooooooo much in the SMB MSP world. Of course in that world it's mostly "make it work 100% of the time and make it work perfectly" but then they'd be unwilling to buy a better camera or upgrade their internet circuit.

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Nik_Tesla@reddit

Execs have no idea what kind of costs are involved in "never again" requests. Sometimes you just have to show them what it would cost. Want to *never* have connection issues again? Well the solution to that is to get consultants 3 ISPs and an SD-WAN to pool them altogether so that their connection *never* degrades. Want to *never* have audio issues again (because of unplugging your mic)? Well the solution is to get an expensive as hell dedicated conference device with camera and mic, and hook it up to a TV in the conference room. Want to *never* accidentally mute yourself during a meeting? Well the solution is to hire an assistant who understands how to use computers and pay them to babysit your technology, rather than pulling resources from IT.

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ComfortableProperty9@reddit

> Execs have no idea what kind of costs are involved in "never again" requests. Sometimes you just have to show them what it would cost. Was at a larger, North America based company that did a lot of business in India and China. Our internal helpdesk was open from 7am to midnight central time which was the closing time for our farthest location in Hawaii. CEO goes to China on a trip and locks himself out. Due to the time in the US (3 or 4 AM), the helpdesk line was rolling over to the NOC who promptly filed out a password reset ticket and forwards to to the helpdesk to handle when they get in at 7am. CEO is all kinds of pissed and demands 24/7 helpdesk coverage when he comes back. Helpdesk manager has to put together a whole proposal on what that would entail and the cost. CEO took one look at it and was like "naaah, I'm good with the current hours".

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Dhaism@reddit

Also going to need redundant power as well as all of the above for each participant in your meeting. A technology assistant would also be a good idea so that they can seamlessly run the meeting for you without randomly unplugging things. Thats all cheap AF though compared to having to buy Zoom so that you can have it re-engineered to prioritize all of your company related connections.

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

>Want to never accidentally mute yourself during a meeting? Well the solution is to hire an assistant who understands how to use computers and pay them to babysit your technology, rather than pulling resources from IT. THIS IS THE SOLUTION. We don't have *never again* money as an organization, but we definitely have the money to hire an administrative assistant.

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No_Equipment_4803@reddit

We fought a similar battle in my organization. Conference call quality in large conference rooms was...honestly pretty medium, not bad, but could be better. We hired two independent groupsthat specialize in conference room setups for Teams, Zoom, etc. The quotes came in around $60k per room and we were told "nevermind, it's good enough." Might be worth getting a quote for the "never again" solution just to have them stop asking you about it.

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bemenaker@reddit

I went through this a few years ago. All my quotes were $40K. We now have logitech room systems and they surprisingly good. One is even a big room for all the salesweenies to sit in, in rows of folding chairs, and congratulate each other on how good their farts smell, aka monthly sales meeting.

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Liquidretro@reddit

Ya I mean 60" 4K TV's are $500 or less now, throw in a small or older desktop you mount behind the TV, a Wireless Keyboard and mouse, a Decent webcam and a wireless mic/speaker (generic) and you have a decent conference setup for $1200 or less. We did this recently and it's working well other than people forgetting to turn the wireless speaker off when they are done, so the next group needs to charge it.

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WeirdFluxButOk@reddit

I can’t get over “salesweenies”

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

True. Pretty much all of the issues I've responded too have been caused by human error. They accidentally mute themselves, select the wrong camera, or don't plug in their headset. We have a logitech rally bar setup in the conference room, but no one remembers to invite the room on their calls so it either rarely gets used or you receive a call that the room isn't working and they have a call in 30 seconds.

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thortgot@reddit

Do they book the meeting room using resource accounts? I found that's the only reliable method of getting users to invite the meeting bars correctly.

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

Yes, it's just getting them to add it.

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NeckRoFeltYa@reddit

Do you like the Logitech rally? I'm looking at getting that plus clickshare for a conference e room now that we have a mix of hp docking stations and usb-c docking stations. Plus our conference room setup is dated and needs to major upgrade. Tried a Polucom studio x50 and honestly I loathe it at the other office. But yes I also have the same issues but have some younger employees who help me out with our other conference room or help the old heads with their issues at that office. Most of the issues are the polycom system because the software on it is absolute trash even when adding the conference room teams call.

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Sinsilenc@reddit

We use the rally without the teams room stuff and its been decent for the year or so we have used it. We have their ptz model that is stand alone though.

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

It's a pain in the butt. I haven't tried other solutions, but we have issues with it switch between the tablet and a plugged in device

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mdj1359@reddit

Someone had recently put in a ticket due to an audio issue in our newest conference room at a remote location. In trouble shooting the situation remotely, I became aware that this newest conference room uses a **Logitech Rally Bar**. Honestly it seems pretty cool. Having no idea what conferencing solution was on-site and having never seen the Tech, it took me maybe an hour to figure out and resolve the issue remotely. Next time I will try the reboot first! Makes me wonder how it would go if I had an opportunity to become more familiar with the gear. Every other conference room we have is a variation of a tangled nest of cables running thru a table or under the floor, with some kind of switching gear, audio mixing and unnecessarily expensive cameras. And of course, the vendor provides little documentation and no schematic so you might have a chance of seeing how it all interacts. If anything goes wrong, it makes me want to fix it with a **hammer!**

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TabooRaver@reddit

Get a high end enterprise laptop with good integrated AV, Disable plug in options (if it's required, a wireless headset is slightly more idiot proof), have some sort of script that auto-unmutes audio out when a conference software starts, remove privacy shutters. If Wi-Fi is an issue to spec out redundant wwan links. There are ways to make it slightly more idiot proof but it'll either be expensive or decrease user-friendliness some.

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capn_kwick@reddit

From Wikipedia - "Don't let perfect get in the way of good" A variation is "Don't let perfect get in the way if good enough". And for the bean counters "We can get to 99% uptime with 100K. To get it to 99.9% is going to cost another 100K".

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9070503010@reddit

Hmmm, in many cases to get to 99.9% costs $100k X $100k. Diminishing returns will require an order of magnitude to reach that very last percentage gain.

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jkarovskaya@reddit

This is the way Had similar kinds of issues with execs (90's technology) wanting con calls with video, and it was a nightmare CEO finally was made to understand that Verndor A can't be seamless with VIdeo from Vendor B Solution buy the exact same brand /model video conferencing dedicated hardware, and have help desk assist every time, or STFU

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StingOfTheMonarch82@reddit

better than my org >hires an EA >they work from home >execs still fail at everything they do ahhh non profits the absolute worst, least capable people buoyed by the 10% who believe in the cause and haven't lost hope yet

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AncientMumu@reddit

At my previous job, the CEO had a PA and a PI, a personal IT guy. That guy did everything IT for the CEO (and the PA + other staff). From phone to laptops, hotspots, anything. At home, at work, in the car, on trips (it's always business) anywhere. And anytime. He even lived on the company's HQ grounds. And he shared the spoils with us, simple IT guys. So that we would help him as far as we could. He really understood how things worked. What a guy.

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Possible_Squirrel_28@reddit

It's kinda frustrating that someone like this is constantly using these type of tools everyday for work but can't be bothered to learn them

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SAugsburger@reddit

This. The VIPs like having their own dedicated Tier 0 support that can handle a lot of basic queries directly for them. An exec assistant can also act as a proxy so they don't even need to directly interact with IT even in more complex issues that are above their EA's knowledge. Depending upon their workload such an EA can serve other functions as well.

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jpmoney@reddit

We're lucky that our CIO enjoys computing in general so he plays the role of 'helpdesk' for the C-suite. He delegates if he needs to, but handles the front-line stuff. Its not entirely altruistic as its good for his rep up there, but I appreciate when I get a 'CEO's laptop needs X installed by Monday' from the CIO instead of 'My phone doesn't work and I have a call in 30 minutes, help me!' from the CEO.

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

I think this is the solution my CTO will push, as this isn't the first unreasonable request we've had to respond to. I remember when we were asked to ensure the power never goes out here. In Florida. On a coastline. In a rented building where generators are not allowed.

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Indifferentchildren@reddit

Just buy the building next door and put your generators and 12 tons of batteries in there. Bam! Solved!

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StabbyPants@reddit

Make sure he’s old enough to be your dad

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SAugsburger@reddit

>Want to never accidentally mute yourself during a meeting? Well the solution is to hire an assistant who understands how to use computers and pay them to babysit your technology, rather than pulling resources from IT. In some large orgs and some medium size orgs where the execs have a large org mentality this actually often is a thing. Even in orgs of a few hundred I have seen cases where a high level VIP with an assistant doesn't directly interact with IT. e.g. CEO's exec assistant will be a form of Tier "0" support. In some really large orgs the VIPs will have a pool of dedicated service desk reps that are some of the more knowledgeable service desk staff or at the very least most able to handle very impatient VIP personalities that will handle helpdesk requests if the issue is beyond their EA's knowledge.

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xixi2@reddit

I would have fun interviewing and hiring for that job... "I'm telling you your literal only job is to follow this guy around and make sure he doesn't break his computer, tell him which blue E means what thing, and make sure Zoom works and his mic is unmuted"

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SAugsburger@reddit

It would be interesting to watch such an interview. To be fair they might have a couple other tasks here or there, but yes, there are some companies where they pay somebody to do something that goofy just to keep the exec content and out of the way of IT and some other teams. There are some 20 somethings where provided the exec isn't too much of an ass will be interested in the job.

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StyxCoverBnd@reddit

>In some large orgs and some medium size orgs where the execs have a large org mentality this actually often is a thing Years ago I had this role at a Fortune 20. It was right when they were adobting large scale telepresence and I would go to different sites and fire up the meeting and confirm audio/video connectivy and then (depending on who was in the meeting) sit hidden in the back in case something happened.

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slykens1@reddit

>Want to never have connection issues again? Well the solution to that is to get consultants 3 ISPs and an SD-WAN to pool them altogether so that their connection never degrades. And make sure they have an enterprise grade firewall to setup QoL for Zoom calls. I'd suggest a dedicated Ethernet circuit. Why risk a widespread outage or routing problem? :) I say that jokingly but I'd bet depending on the locality it might actually be reasonably priced enough that it would be an option.

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PowerShellGenius@reddit

>I'd suggest a dedicated Ethernet circuit. Why risk a widespread outage or routing problem? If Microsoft would ever sell a Teams Server, that might make a difference. As it is, regional internet issues would affect a conference call between two workstations in the same room plugged into the same switch. There is nothing you can do about regional internet outages if you're in the "cloud".

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chum-guzzling-shark@reddit

also need multiple firewalls and an enterprise grade UPS

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bigfoot_76@reddit

Fuck SD WAN tell them you need a direct fiber circuit to the other side with a Tandberg system. See how fast that ass pickers up tighter a snare drum

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bemenaker@reddit

Logitech rooms systems are surprisingly good for the cost for smaller businesses.

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STUNTPENlS@reddit

> he needs a solution so that we no longer have issues using Zoom, Webex, or Teams ever again. Hand him a POTS phone and a landline. Although those still have problems from time to time as well.

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Trooper_Ted@reddit

To make your life easier in the short term, could you deploy something like a DTEN Me to the CEOs desk? If you have calendar integration setup, all his meetings will populate on the screen & a big blue START button appears 5 mins before the meeting start time. There's only one camera, one mic, one speaker so he can't really go wrong there. We run our DTENs in Zoom Room mode with Teams & Cisco integration turned on, so whatever the invite, the units can handle it.

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w1cked5mile@reddit

I deal with this every week. Except the people using the equipment aren't elderly execs. We have a dozen conference rooms over three locations and use them daily. We went through a project last year to replace all of our video conferencing equipment with the same solution so everyone had to learn just one system. My team has to constantly monitor these rooms. We get called regularly because something isn't working the way someone expected it to. There are complaints of connectivity issues, static, can't get a picture, echos, babies crying, dogs and cats living together, blah, blah, blah. 90% of the time, I go in to fix it and someone has unplugged an HDMI cable or network connection, changed the monitor to another input, or some other slight change that caused the next person using the room trouble. I'm all for empowering end users to troubleshoot their own problems, but it gets ridiculous when the senior leadership has to watch me reconnect everything on a weekly basis because someone monkeyed with it. The other 10% boils down to the weakest link in the chain. Someone connecting from a tin can and string Internet WiFi from a crowded room using their mobile device on speaker mode is going to drag the whole video conference down. IT can't fix the ubiquitous, "You're on mute." The ongoing hardware or driver problem, even though we've told them not to plug USB audio devices into a docking station, we still get complaints about their machines locking up. (It's a known issue we've tracked down but can't consistently resolve.) Emails asking everyone not to screw with the cables or setups hasn't worked. Laminated instructions in every room doesn't work. Requests for everyone to respect other people's time by not changing things and report problems to help desk doesn't work. Nothing stops people from screwing up the conference rooms and leaving them a wreck. And before you tell me it's not my job to police it, just do what you're told to fix the technical problem. I know. I've escalated the problem to the leadership team as well as HR, yet I'm the one staring down the barrel when everyone in the conference room is waiting on me to fix something that could have been avoided.

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allsortsofmeow@reddit

Honestly just get a zoom neat bar or Logitech teams bar for the ceo. Will cost around 3-4k fitted and you literally can’t fuck up the mic/camera etc, it all just works.

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DerBurner132@reddit

You underestimate the ability of bosses of defeating even idiot proof Systems. Even if There is just one Button to Push, they Maybe Push it to Lightly, try only once and immediatley blow up your phone, Teams Chat and Team Lead‘s phone.

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Devilnutz2651@reddit

I installed Logitech meetup camera/speaker bars in all my conference rooms with a NUC mounted to the wall behind the TV. Wireless mouse and keyboard on the conference table. No excuses for not knowing how to work it since it's just like using it on their laptop/PC

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JH6JH6@reddit

maybe give them an ipad, thats what we give dumb people to take video calls.

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DerBurner132@reddit

Thats what we thought, than our CFO called me and asked why the battery of his new iPad Pro kept dying. Turns out he only connected his Monitor via a USB C to hdmi Adapter and didnt Unterstand thats not how you charge your iPad…. It Never stops. Eben if you gave them pen and paper, they‘d probably forget how to Sharpen the pen.

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matt95110@reddit

I love nothing more than getting a quote for a $30k video conference solution plus another $5k to have it installed properly. Usually kills the discussion right then and there.

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IT-Man0@reddit

We did it and they went for it - they still complain

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GreyHasHobbies@reddit

I have deployed millions of dollars worth of Microsoft conferencing services (Teams + Teams Rooms). I have toured Microsoft, Cisco, Gates Foundation, F5 Networks, and probably some other campuses to talk to their conference . That's all to say, nobody has "seamless, error free video conferencing systems." They just have new and different problems.

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IT-Man0@reddit

We use Teams and Teams Rooms because we are M365 and it's generally fine, but I constantly have to fight off senior managers wanting to convert everything to Zoom for extra tens of thousands a year. They usually come up with some very specific requirement which any normal person wouldn't even notice. Teams is adding new features pretty rapidly so I hope this won't continue forever...

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bob_cramit@reddit

Shit just happens sometimes. We have surface hubs and had the screen fail mid call, I saw it happen, just broke 10 minutes into a call and required replacement. Had internet go down mid live stream. How often does our internet go down like that, I cant evem remember the last time, but it happened mid live stream. Have teams room systems in a bunch of meetings rooms. Sometimes they just dont work, camera wont turn on, screen wont turn on etc. Shit just happens sometimes.

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GreyHasHobbies@reddit

We bought 3 Surface Hubs for a pilot. 2/3 were DOA with bad screens. 😓

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

I figured this was the case. It just seemed like a quick method of justifying an unreasonable request

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sagewah@reddit

> When my boss tells him no, he'll actually believe her as she's older than I am. It's even more galling when you can say something repeatedly until you're blue in the face, but it doesn't get heard until a vendor's sales team says it :\

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exportgoldman2@reddit

Get him a iPad.

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K3rat@reddit

I feel your pain. I have been in situations more than once where mid level people say “nothing works”. When people do this I go out of my way to take the mouse and get things fixed in 30 sec or less. I have people that piss and moan about how great macs are just to find out these people don’t know how to use them. I had one gal say our system was broken because she couldn’t share her screen from her own computer. Again, less than 30 sec to fix. I ask people to make tickets when they have trouble and allow us time to help and coach them. We remind people to test before their meetings start. We publish an FAQ so people have the option to help themselves. Some people use it. I have an executive team that has 2 executive assistants that help with conferencing coordination. We train them pretty hard on the hardware and tech we also usually steer them to more technically adept people since the less adept people just don’t last. . We ask that they get things tested before their meetings so we have time to help them fix things or diagnose issues. We also have a board of directors that is 50% non tech abled. It has been difficult dealing with a digitizing world. 2 of them I ended up just buying tablets for and having only the apps we use on them so I could remote in and help them when they couldn’t figure out their way out of a wet paper bag. The root here is they don’t pay me to fix the system, they pay me because I know how to fix the systems. After I make that point I do 2 things. 1. I do go through the effort to remove all the unnecessary options from systems and endpoints. It is the KISS rule. 2. Provide additional training media in the form of FAQ and videos for new hires. For me this split the weak from the trainable mid level people. I use the executive assistants to keep the executive Team functioning.

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9070503010@reddit

You have a people problem, not a technology problem. What you need is a senior whisperer. This is someone who speaks senior, can calm their fears and help them overcome their limitations. You are not that person, either because they are intimidated by you or you just aren’t old enough. The ideal person in a situation like this is usually not a technical person and is someone who can make the senior feel good about asking for help. Find someone in the company who can be your senior whisperer, beg/bribe for their time when their services are needed and get them to be the whisperer. All will be happy when this works. None will be happy until it does.

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rat4204@reddit

sir i understand the X system is broken and it needs fixed or replaced. we certainly don't want to have the same problems with the new stuff' and want to make sure it works as you expect. so tell me what happened.. your mic stopped working when you clicked mute? i see, and it didn't work again when you tried to unmute? oh you didn't unmute? no sir i don't believe there's a system that will allow the mic to work while the system is muted. you weren't able to connect to the screen? oh man did it give you an error when you plugged in the cable? the HDMI cable. the one sitting on the conference table, yessir that is what connects to the screen.

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TronFan@reddit

I visited an Amazon location recently and even they with all their money had meeting room issues.

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DrunkenGolfer@reddit

Been there, done that. Country head for IT of a publicly-traded company, layers of staff under me, and the CIO wants me to sit in on exec calls because seeing someone senior brings them comfort. The number of times I clicked a button and then sat outside the door for three hours “just in case”, is mind boggling. As far as handling the “why are we the only ones with trouble?” questions, they usually go away when you tell them what it costs to fix them. Dedicated AV for rooms with proper cameras and microphones, voice lift systems, SDN WAN with multiple vendors and ISPs, QoS from end-to-end, etc, all come with a price tag that usually makes them say “We can always just call them.”

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CM-DeyjaVou@reddit

Part of me wonders if big-shot elderly executive types (or people at that level) were given chauffeurs when cars were made commercially-available, *specifically because they themselves could not drive and could/would not learn.* The business world probably needs "digital chauffeurs"; project resources and high-level sys personnel should not be appropriated for this purpose the same way you would not take an architect off a job site during a walkthrough just to drive you to Dairy Queen "because the pedals are confusing".

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coldfusion718@reddit

They don’t even want to pay IT to do basic work. What makes you think they’d want to pay a digital chauffeur?

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eldonhughes@reddit

"knowing full well that there really isn't a solution other than requiring consultants to understand the tools of their job." There are other solutions. For example, if these meetings are where the decisions get made, or just get started, they have a determinable value. If it is that valuable, suggest hiring a "communications coordinator" to handle scheduling, equipment training, meeting set up and conference management and support. Get the point that all the remote people on the call have to do is click the link and they are in. And the boss just has to sit down and start talking.

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obeythemoderator@reddit

Oh yes. In my experience, executives don't really know how to do anything and when they're old it's 100 times worse. It also seems like these kinds of people only have one setting and it's a gross combination of default rage, impatience and an absolute refusal to listen to anyone.

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Devilnutz2651@reddit

The higher up the ladder, the more difficult basic shit seems to become

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

Damn, you hit the nail on the head on what I've been seeing.

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Devilnutz2651@reddit

I still have people who have problems with our video conferencing suites in our conference rooms. Like come on, we've been doing this for years and it's just like on your laptop. Stop blaming the equipment

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Effective_Ad_7439@reddit

I'll just mute myself and laugh at them.

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RussianBot13@reddit

"and he needs a solution so that we no longer have issues using Zoom, Webex, or Teams ever again." Pick up the telephone, sir.

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frac6969@reddit

Haha, I remembered when my previous boss would suffer through poor quality VOIP calls to save money. He understood the limitations and never complained. When we rotated execs we got a new boss who would not suffer so he started using the telephone. We ended with like $10,000 a month in telephone bills.

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

Haha, my coworker said something similar. Most of these calls don't require two people looking at one another.

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mitspieler99@reddit

I will never forget a c level asking everyone to keep microphones unmuted at all times. Because muting could only mean you are talking to someone else. He wanted full attention. He got mixed feedback.

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cheeley@reddit

> mixed feedback https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExZGZkMTJiNDg1MDkxMWZlNmMxY2QzNTlkMGFjZDA4ZjRiODg4NzhhZiZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZzX2dpZklkJmN0PWc/CcUk4a6fkgUfu/giphy.gif

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lordjedi@reddit

> To me, it feels like we're calling the mechanic because the fork lift operator doesn't know how to lift a pallet. That's because that's exactly what you're doing. > Have you guys struggled with something like this recently? Everyday. I have a user that believes they need a new laptop because they occasionally have problems with their mic on video calls. They use an external mic that isn't always connected and they don't know how to change the device. That's what it comes down to.

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Lord_emotabb@reddit

sit your ass with him and show him how simple it is, if he was muted, tell him like he was a toddler, "here is your problem, you were on mute", or "see this cable? cant disconnect it or people wont hear you". show him how inept and essencially, how its his fault, and when he asks you about deadlines of project, explain to him: "i didnt had time for that, i was busy solving that issue when you muted yourself on tuesday"

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ChumpyCarvings@reddit

User needs to be using a dedicated device, preferably a proper one designed for it, but an iPad isn't a bad option either.

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earthsowncaligrown@reddit

Your not alone. The facts are simple, most end users don't understand they can be the primary problem or catalyst for the problem. That's a leadership conversation, not a technical one. Good luck.

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rahga@reddit

>Today was the peak of the insanity. I was called into his office where he sat me down and explained that other companies have seamless, error free video conferencing systems. He's probably right. They're probably spending way more money on it, too. [For example, take this picture of Fed Chair Powell using Cisco WebEx hardware.](https://twitter.com/federalreserve/status/1270809417181802504)

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yesterdaysthought@reddit

In professional work it's all about setting and meeting expectations. You can either convince people of what the expectation should be and that you've met it or you can't. If you can't get people to listen to you or your team, it's probably time to move on, seriously. At my last SMB co, it was considered normal to have a support tech sit in meeting room for the entire 1hr monthly meeting where the co president spoke to VIPs. Support also regularly prepped (connected to far side and then left after first 5min) a few other regular meetings per month. That's the job. If you don't want to interact with people and solve tech problems, you need to move into engineering. The best support techs understand the above, how to manage expectations and shephard people and their people love them. It's a real skill.

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ooblongtea@reddit

3 years into Teams for most meetings I still battle with this. I have one to support who is in their mid 50s and proclaims to be "good with computers". They still cannot mute/unmute, turn their cams off and on, etc. The biggest battle is getting that individual to edit meetings they need to change, vs creating a bunch of new meetings. Recently they created one, had a change, so they created a new meeting. Then they created another meeting to include the agenda. On meeting day folks were split between all 3, it was comical. I knew this was coming so I scheduled a BS chat with a vendor. Later they said I made them seem foolish as they couldn't get any of this right. Hey, it's only been 3 years, Rome wasn't build in a day.

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AnxiousMaker@reddit

> I was called into his office where he sat me down and explained that other companies have seamless, error free video conferencing systems. AKA, competent employees that still have some brain plasticity. I so deeply feel your pain and would hold you and cry together if we could.

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Humble-Plankton2217@reddit

He needs an assistant/babysitter.

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No_Investigator3369@reddit

Yea, be sure to leave every 2 years until your 30's. This will be common until almost 40.

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auenway@reddit

Happens all the time. I sometimes throw in, if something worked 100% of the time then there would be no need for IT. I say a personal comment like, This happens to me at home all the time when I use Zoom with friends. Sometimes it's their internet that experiences a hiccup other times it's mine, we usually end up rebooting and everything works OR one of us notices they accidentally clicked the MUTE button. You can even perform periodic test calls with him just so he can see it really does work LOL As dumb as that sounds it may trigger something in his head to think maybe it's the person on the other side or maybe it's something he does when he's alone. Sometimes acting a little stupid in front of a nontech person helps break the ice a bit.

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WolverineAdmin98@reddit

For a few bucks you can get a MS Teams Room device. It's pretty simple to use, but I assume this user can't work a mobile phone teams app either so would probably struggle with the same concept on a screen.

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BoltActionRifleman@reddit

~~The solution is to find a user capable of understanding even the most basic troubleshooting steps ~~ There is no solution

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delightfulsorrow@reddit

Oh, that's nothing new. Ask a (long) retired personal assistant how long it took until she got her boss trained on the new intercom which now had three buttons instead of two. Things only got more obvious these days as managers are now expected to handle some stuff by themselves which was taken care of by their assistants back in the days.

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

It does make me feel better to hear this from others, that sounds hilarious after the fact

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delightfulsorrow@reddit

Back in the early 2000's, I replaced the fax machines in the company by a company wide electronic fax solution (where you got your incoming faxes delivered by mail and were able to send stuff out by attaching a document to a mail addressed accordingly). That was my first big project in that shop, and it was where I met some of those old school assistants. A college of mine, mainly doing the user documentation, arranged appointments with the personal assistants of the whole top management, we asked them about their use cases, tweaked the configuration for them, and gave them a special training and our mobile numbers just in case. That helped a lot to make the project a success recognized by management levels who would never be involved in such a project otherwise (as they got told by their assistants how great that new stuff was working). And boy had those ladies stories to tell once we had the reputation as "those nice guys helping us to get our work done easier"... :-)

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Er4smus@reddit

You're going to be running into this forever and its not an age related issue at all. It's a lack of understanding how anything works by all age groups. What you should work on is trying to explain things in simple terms so non tech people can understand. For the most part all those apps have tools to prove the issues are not on your end though you could show reports and explain them to your CEO and team. It's a battle but your manger should be able to show you how they word things...a lot of it comes down to learning to communicate with people outside of IT.

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

I hear ya. I have been able to simplify a lot of the issues for other members of the team. Working Geek Squad sort of prepared me for that. The issues really stem from the CEO, who is staunchly unwilling to learn. For example, both myself and the CTO have shown him how to select the correct camera in Teams multiple times. He will still call us. In my mind, I believe the solution is to get him an administrative assistant, then schedule regular training with the other employees to have them learn the program.

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StabbyPants@reddit

You’re exactly right.

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spetcnaz@reddit

There are people who just don't want to listen and learn. The older they are, especially the boomers, the worse it is. I have dealt with many cases like that. With age their memory deteriorates too, and they refuse to acknowledge it, and they will absolutely state that something that you talked about in person or showcased in person, never happened. We can't walk around with body cams to prove otherwise.

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

That's what we've been experiencing pretty badly these past few years. That and easy to anger when they're confused.

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spetcnaz@reddit

Yup. Many in the older crowd think their age is a free pass to yell at people. Absolutely unacceptable behavior, no matter one's age. Refusal to accept any wrongdoing is also very widespread among the older crowd.

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StabbyPants@reddit

Hire a 45yo pa to babysit him and listen to you?

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ThisGreenWhore@reddit

You're not going to like my answer. Sit with him for every video conference call and make him "drive". Try and hold firm on him doing everything. It makes a difference in the long term. However, if the CEO just wants his hand held, there is nothing you can do about it. Chances are he will not like having an assistant to do this work. In the interim, when projects are being delayed by this, bring this up with your boss. Sometimes, it is what it is.

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Terriblyboard@reddit

quote them a dedicated telepresence system for their house, a team to run and setup meetings, and dedicated lines between each users site that can be managed with QoS end to end... and then redundant links as well.

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ARobertNotABob@reddit

> To me, it feels like we're calling the mechanic because the fork lift operator doesn't know how to lift a pallet. This is IT support in a nutshell.

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LessConcentrate1612@reddit

Aside from all the frustration, this may be a chance to really shine in front of the CEO and get on a first name basis with him. I wouldn't worry too much about getting pulled in other directions with him. He is your bosses boss so she knows what's up. It's common to dismiss a younger person's suggestion. It's probably not personal but rather learned from experience. Hang in there my fellow stoner.

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

We're already on a first-name basis. I've been to his house several times.

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LessConcentrate1612@reddit

Have you spent the night?

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Nihlithian@reddit (OP)

Hey man, had to get that funding for my master's degree. I'm only joking, he has a home office there and so I'm routinely called to fix issues or replace some hardware.

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LessConcentrate1612@reddit

Haha, ain’t no shame in that game! A man had to eat! (Keilbasa Sausage that is) lol

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timallen445@reddit

time to get one of the 50-100k conference room makeovers. Even with better purpose built equipment he is still going to have a hard time. its probably easier to just get an assistant for all his calls.

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