Question of the day: Are Zoom training sessions better or worse than in-person training sessions? Personally, I thought in-person training sessions were the worst, but Zoom is making its way to the top of the list. The future I imagined that we were heading towards slightly resembled that of The Jetsons. Flying cars, fully-automated homes, and living in condos above the clouds. Instead, we have Zoom training.

When the Covid pandemic hit, social distancing came about, and this complicated a lot of things for a lot of people and a lot of businesses. Some businesses thrived in these trying times, and unfortunately, many of them were forced to close their doors forever. It came down to “adapt, evolve, overcome” for those who stayed in the game, and one of the ways businesses stayed in the game, such as it is – cause it’s not really a fun game if we’re being honest, unless you’re Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos – was by transitioning to remote work and with remote work came the world of Zoom.

Ah, Zoom calls. Where individuals can attend work meetings, educational courses, job interviews, and more, all from the comfort of their home. Since only your upper half is in view, you can do all these things without having to put on pants, pick out shoes, or match your socks. Just like everything else in the world, there are pros and cons to everything, Zoom included. One benefit that I found is that you can mute Hank from accounting when he starts telling one of his “blonde” jokes. I’ve even had the pleasure of seeing someone go to answer their door, only to have their Labrador Retriever expertly steal the sandwich they left by their computer. To make this even funnier, the stealthy pooch was gone by the time their owner returned, and I got the privilege of seeing them legitimately search for their lunch for nearly 2 minutes before they realized that Rover pulled the old dine and dash on them. None of us told on Rover, by the way, and I feel proud about that. Snitches get stitches, or so they say, and we had Rover’s back.

It goes without saying that there are a few perks to Zoom World, but I will admit, the streaming delays that last just long enough to make you think your system is glitching, the actual glitches – you know, the ones you don’t notice right away like when you’ve been talking for 10 minutes into a frozen screen, and people constantly repeating themselves because someone wasn’t listening, or someone was muted, or people were talking over each other, can be exceedingly frustrating.

The monotony of a 70-page training deck and a Zoom trainer that sounds straight out of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off as they read each slide word for word is made all the worse when you remember that the in-person meetings always had donuts to make up for the torture that is workplace training. Pajama pants or no pajama pants, I like a good donut.

But, on the plus side, the errant toddlers suddenly showing up in the background and the cats jumping on unsuspecting laps always make it worthwhile… bonus points if the owner of the unsuspecting lap was drinking a coffee at the time.

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