We’re in an age of remote work, and that means you’re more likely than ever to be invited to a video meeting instead of a regular phone call or even a working lunch. Zoom is the new middle ground for introductions, consultations, collaborations, interviews, and more.
Sometimes, it’s productive to see one another’s faces when working on a project. When you’re deep into a brainstorming session, you might even forget that you’re not sitting around a conference table (like the good old days). And this is especially wonderful for those times when people are traveling—or if you want to loop in teams in different branches. That might have seemed like a pain in the past, but now it’s just as easy as anything else (time zones notwithstanding).
But then again, there are those times when video calls seem to last longer than necessary.
Sometimes, this is done to give the call a greater feel of importance, with length implying someone’s commitment to the person they are speaking to, the project at hand, etc. Sometimes it’s done incidentally: If someone is already intruding on your time, they might feel like they should make the most of it. Either way, it can be difficult when one person would rather “get their minutes back”…and the other person thinks they are showing a greater level of professionalism by trying to use up every minute of the time that they requested.
This issue is especially tricky with new clients or vendors who don’t know each other’s timing and tonality very well yet—and it can be insidious on pitch calls where one person has more to gain than the other. Regardless, we have all found ourselves in situations where it feels difficult to just “hop off” a video the way you can quickly excuse yourself from a call.
So that’s why we’re asking, now that we’re years past the onset of the pandemic and have fully embraced this new work-from-home normalcy, what is the best way to hang up over Zoom?
Here are the options we’ve rounded up so far:
- “I’ll let you go.” This sounds like a courteous gesture that respects the other’s time.
- The Callback: Refer back to a talking point from the start of the call, bringing it full circle.
- The Countdown: Start indicating when you have 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 2 minutes left.
- Next Steps: When you recap the meeting and explain who will follow up or reach out.
- Consensus: Say it sounds like you are in agreement and have enough to get started.
If you have other suggestions that have worked so far, let us hear them! But please feel free to email us. In this case, there’s no need to Zoom.