Woooop things are now starting to open up more in our daily lives. We can nip to the local coffee shop now, meet a friend or go to the cinema. For me, it feels good getting out and about, albeit still being mindful to not forget my face mask and get ahead of myself!
I have also had the opportunity to go to a couple of face to face business meetings. A few coffee meet ups and a business lunch. It was such a novelty to leave the house to have an actual conversation with a real person and meet them, in some instances, for the first time. I used to do it all the time, I would literally travel to the other side of the country to have a meeting, it was part of my weekly routine, but now that familiarity feels like a long lost stranger.
Out of practice
In the hours before leaving the house, I found myself out of practice. What did I need to take with me? What should I wear? What time do I need to leave my house? How do I get to the location? Can I park? The list of questions I was asking myself was endless. Honestly, this new complexity in leaving the house bamboozled me! How did I do this with such comfort 2 years prior, plus travel 185 miles to talk business to people face to face?! Crazy!
I did eventually make it out of my house and to my meeting locations and was faced with my 1st post COVID meeting dilemma, do I greet with a handshake or not? Or do I offer my elbow for an awkward, unnatural elbow to elbow bump. My instinct was to offer my hand for a handshake but would my counterpart be as comfortable? Aaaah! In the end we called out the weirdness, laughed at it and it broke the ice. But one thing was for sure, this new post COVID meeting etiquette, was wildly questioning my old school protocols.
Can you hear me?
I had successfully navigated the greeting, phew! Now, where do I sit to be compliant with 2 metre regulations but so we can still interact and hear each other? Minefield! We had seemingly swapped the on screen saying of 2020 of ‘You are on mute’ to the in person saying of 2021 ‘Can you hear me over there?’ whilst trying to project confidence, credibility and assurance that all was well and this was totally normal. I have to be honest, by this point these blunter health & safety protocols were really taking the shine away of meeting face to face again. Rightly or wrongly I had imagined these in person interactions to be glorious, easy, natural and reminiscent of pre COVID times. I was wrong, the experience had changed, it had to, we have been in a global pandemic - but I had somehow forgotten to change my expectations of what a face to face meeting now had to entail.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved meeting people and chatting business face to face, it really isn't the same experience having to do it on screen. But maybe I had held onto this unrealistic dream where meeting etiquette was still circa 2019 and didn't involve an awkward elbow tap, talking with projection and dipping ourselves in sanitiser.
At least for a little while longer, I think I might stick to forgetting to unmute my mic on Zoom.
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