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Comment by setgree | Hacker News Reader

In my dream world we would normalize things like eating on a zoom call. People gotta eat, it’s no big deal. Maybe if they’re audibly slurping soup that’s a problem in terms of noise, but that would also be a problem during a boardroom meeting.

(I once got in a lot of trouble for having a bowl of cereal while I was a silent participant in a call with a client at a fintech company, so I understand that attitudes like yours are common.)

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People also gotta shit. Should I do a Zoom call while on the toilet?

It's a matter of where is your attention. If you're eating you're not fully focused on the other participant you're interacting with and not being fully present for them is rude.

Isn't this a false equivalence?

I'll often eat with other people, but I wouldn't take a sh*t with them.

It’s okay, we’re all grownups here. You can say shit without censoring yourself.

If society agrees that eating during workplace meetings is acceptable, then so be it. My point was that "it's a biological need therefore it's acceptable" isn't an excuse to use for eating in a meeting (working lunches excluded as all participants understand the intention of those).

Meals are an excellent venue for conversation. People are fully capable of eating, listening and responding. Being remote doesn't change that.

Conversations on the can are less universally accepted. But do you ever see people go off-camera for a minute or ten? Some fraction of them must be listening from the loo.

It's one thing, on a team meeting, to somewhat embarrasingly say "I'm going to go off-video because I haven't had breakfast yet" and it's quite another thing to be eating when on a call with a client.

Yes, in retrospect I obviously should have waited as a matter of norms (that I didn’t know). I’m saying that I would like for that norm to be relaxed.

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