Is It Okay To Multi-Task During Online Meetings?

The shift to virtual meetings transformed the professional landscape. We are accustomed to Zoom and virtual environments, whether video conferencing or shared workspace online. Remote and hybrid work roles are on the rise. Even as professionals return to the office, virtual meetings remain. You may participate in as many Zoom meetings in the conference room as you did in your bedroom (i.e., home office).

Your Inbox is tipping over, and your Outbox is lonely. Is it okay to multi-task during online meetings? Everyone has muted the mic and turned the camera off for reasons that may not be entirely professional. No universally accepted decorum exists for virtual calls. If there were, who would enforce it? If your company has written policies covering behavior on Zoom, or similar platforms, follow them to the letter. If not, it’s the Wild West.  

Read the room and assess your position. Not all Zoom meetings are created equal, but you should be engaged and ready to participate as circumstances require. If you want to multi-task during online meetings, consider the following:

1.     What is your work culture? Every business has a different approach to meetings, virtual or in-person. Many companies hold few formal meetings, while others seem to be a carousel of endless internal and external meetings that leave little time to do actual work. What is your employer’s expectation of employee behavior during virtual meetings? If your company emphasizes proactive participation, it may be a poor decision to multi-task during your Zoom call. If your company goes through the motions and it’s common for employees to pop in and out of meetings, figuratively and literally, you may have leeway to use Zoom time as work time too.

2.     Are you on a video call with your boss, a customer, or a client? Do not multi-task. In each of those cases, they should be your only priority. Nurturing your most important professional interpersonal relationships outweighs the jump you can get on whatever reports are languishing on your desk.

3.     Is it an emergency? If you’re in an unavoidable Zoom meeting and must finish the most important report in history by high noon, go dark and multi-task. Sometimes you have an uncompleted task that is a much higher priority than the contents of a meeting. If backed into a corner, follow the course of action that fulfills your time-sensitive deliverables.

4.     Where are you? Multi-tasking is easier if you are alone in your home office than sitting around a conference room table with ten co-workers. Your multi-tasking will be noticed and judged if you’re in a cubicle surrounded by cubicles, especially if some are occupied by people on the same Zoom call. In contrast, you can tackle that Inbox if you are in a private office or space. Once again, read the room – the actual room. Does your physical space lend itself to multitasking during virtual meetings? 

5.     What’s the meeting? Meetings are big and small, in size and importance. A quarterly all-staff meeting is different from a weekly report between a handful of people. A meeting about a company relocating is more important than a meeting to review sales data. A call regarding sensitive personnel issues may require your full attention, but a routine touch-point does not. The topic or goal of a specific meeting may be vitally important to you, and you should act accordingly, but if you have a cursory role, you may consider multi-tasking. Read the meeting.

6.     Are you actually good a multi-tasking? Two important facts are typically absent from any discussion about “multi-tasking.” First, multi-tasking is neurologically impossible. Rapidly going from task to task is the best we can do. Two, most people are not very good at rapidly going from task to task. Just because you can multi-task does not mean you should. Have an honest conversation with yourself. How much are you going to move the needle during your Zoom call? Are you doing your best work if you have one ear to the speaker?

7.     How do you want to be perceived? Whether or not you are aware of it, you have a professional reputation that follows you. An important part of your professional reputation is how people perceive you. Your participation in meetings, virtual or not, influences others’ perceptions of you. For example, if you work remotely with your mic and video off most of the time, it is easy for people to believe your multi-tasking is making coffee, folding laundry, or watching TikTok videos. In contrast, if you are visible and engaged during every Zoom meeting, you project emotional intelligence, diligence, and authority.

8.     Proceed with caution. If you decide to multi-task during Zoom meetings, be cautious. Be sure to turn off your mic and camera!

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.