- Zoom CEO Eric Yuan forgot to unmute his mic during a call with investors Tuesday.
- After several seconds, a coworker spoke up to let Yuan know no one could hear him.
- As video calls have become the norm during the pandemic, so too have new ways of miscommunicating.
- For more stories go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
We've all been there: it's your turn to chime in on the video call, and right when your train of thought gets rolling, a chorus of frantic coworkers chime in to say no one can hear you - you've left yourself on mute.
As it turns out, even the creator of Zoom himself can fall victim to one of the most common, if harmless, missteps that comes with using video conferencing tools.
CEO Eric Yuan left his mic on mute for several seconds while kicking off an earnings call with investors on Tuesday, before someone from the company's investor relations team spoke up to tell Yuan his audio wasn't coming through.
CNBC reporter Jordan Novet tweeted a screenshot of the incident.
the CEO of Zoom, Eric Yuan, just started talking on his company's blowout earnings call on Zoom and he was on mute pic.twitter.com/NV0VQ14SEQ
— Jordan Novet (@jordannovet) June 2, 2020
With coronavirus stay-at-home orders forcing millions of workers to turn to video conferencing tools like Zoom for nearly all their meetings, slip-ups like Yuan's have become increasingly common as people try to adjust to the sometimes unfamiliar form of communication.
While the tools have become more sophisticated than ever, they've also revealed the many ways they fall short of replicating good, old-fashioned in-person conversations, from lagging video and audio to triggering fight-or-flight responses to allowing uninvited trolls to crash calls.
Still, video tools - Zoom in particular - are seeing an unprecedented surge in users. Yuan said in April that Zoom logged more than 300 million meeting participants on a single day.
Receive a daily update on your cellphone with all our latest news: click here.
Get the best of our site emailed to you daily: click here.
Also from Business Insider South Africa:
- A draft law sets SA’s drunk-driving limit to zero – and govt is keen to get it enacted
- From Sasol to Shoprite - here are some bursaries available for university study in 2021
- Chinese manufacturing output surged the most in 9 years in May
- Incredible photos from SpaceX's historic mission to send astronauts into space
- 12 tourist hot spots planning to reopen this June