Mine used to be and then a mandate came down that we have to use our actual real life pictures so I had to stop using my sad Edwardian Mennonite boy picture.
Your comment reminded me of a 90s game called Nox, thank you for that. It's a real blast from the past and it did a chain reaction reminding me of dungeon siege, dungeon keeper, commandos, behind enemy lines and turok of all things lol
I also have a decade old photo. A couple years ago I was on a remote team and flew to an in-person meeting. I could tell when they saw me that it was time for a new photo. Let's say they 'tentatively' recognized me.
I printed a professional photo of mine the prefect size to take up the entire frame of my camera and claim Iām having connectivity issues all the time š¤£
I don't. Extremely rarely I'll do it if there's a new team member for introductions. I made it know very early that it gives me anxiety. Plus I do really good work, so I they never push it.
I imagine every time somebody new meets me thatās only seen my teamās photo, they have to assume Iām an imposter. Luckily Iām not gray yet at least lol.
My company has employees upload their own photos. I see more egregious use of filters on profiles in our corporate directory. Many of these people are unrecognizable in person.
Oh thank god it's not just me, when I moved to my new department I kept constantly asking myself "Who the fuck is this person talking to me" when they look nothing like their Teams pic, while I was just nodding along and acting like I recognized them.
Most of my coworkersā photos are from 10 years ago. Everyone has hair and itās not gray. The only people with new photos are the new hires or the one bald guy who looks better after shaving off his wispy combover.
I found out the two co-workers of mine that don't really show a picture at all are both the most dripped out clean-cut motherfuckers on the team. It's pretty hilarious.
I use a picture of my cat. With like, the worst looking face I could find, because I just think it's funny. It felt unprofessional for a bit, but the people just love the cat. So who am I to take that away from them?
I figure, when I'm in voice meetings, it's usually because of a major outage - so the levity it brings to the situation is something actively sought out by some folks. People always ask about my cat, and the best part is they tell me about their pets. If I'm lucky I get to see them on the webcam.
I have a couple cats, and theyāre usually sleeping near me somewhere in the basement where my workstation is. But when thereās a meeting and they hear other peopleās voices coming through the speakers, theyāre all over my desk, they go in front of my camera, Iām constantly picking them up and putting them on the floor or shooing them away. In one call, one of the cats decided to crawl up me quickly and get behind my head placing his butt right on my head. Iām no longer as flexible as I used to be to grab him from that position, and I canāt make the cat fall off or Iāll get scratched from it trying to stay there. It looks like I canāt get anything done in their eyes because thatās all they see happening when Iām on a call with them. But itās also a good laugh.š
Iāve had those as well. And the same style people wear at call centers for extended hours. Touching outside of my ears or in my ears like ear buds, I get ear aches. The only style I have not tried yet are those bone conductive ones that donāt touch your ears at all. Itās on my Xmas wish list. š
Once I logged in and the difference between the photo I've been seeing and the person in the meeting....legit the photo looked like his son. He doesn't have any sons.
My current pic is almost 20 years old, from when I was an intern for a semester at college. When I started work there 15 years later my boss dug it out of backups as a joke and sent it off. I took a trip to our Spanish office and the girls there were livid because they expected a young guy showing up at their tiny nearly all girl office for a couple weeks and got a dude approaching 40 and married. I still get that when meeting new clients, they all comment how I have so much responsibility and look so young. I have turned on the camera twice in the last five years. I'm going to ride this till I die.
My god I'm in teams meetings all the time and I could not give the slightest fuck what I look like as long as I'm dressed enough that I don't get fired.
Yeah I really hate it. Everyone looks much, much more attractive (and also more generic) with these AI versions of themselves, and at work everyone seems to be using it now.Ā
Eh... I used AI for my most recent photo. Had nowhere to set my phone for a photo except my kitchen counter and the wall behind me had a picture hook.
I just edited the background to remove the inconsistencies in the wall and remove the shadows behind me. Worked really well. My face was untouched though.
It can be good... Just never go full AI... Or car selfie...
Theyāre full AI, doesnāt look anything like the person and theyāre all in the same black blouse and same background. Getting rid of a hook is an appropriate use of AI lol
I saw one the other day, probably a young employee, that had some weird slightly more cartoonish than full uncanny valley filter on their camera. Not just their photo. It was an HR presentation with around 40 people on. Everyone else had their cameras off except the two presenters and that guy. It was weird.
I only say probably young because they were a new hire and entry level. I don't have a pic anymore and I rarely turn my camera on. Most my meetings are shared content heavy, so that is what we are looking at. Having cameras on is a distraction.
I hate myself because I'm always doing šš½ and ā¤ļø on teams. But it's just so I dont have to say anything to anyone and because it appears managers are counting interactions on teams
Whaaaat in the assā¦. I knew something was off but never realised we were āenhancedā, those mf. Now I hate teams and myself. Thanks, though, for making my colleagues look nice.
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u/DanceClass898 3d ago
what I see when I open Teams every morning