I Am Sick of Seeing Uninvited Guests in My Meetings. Enough Is Enough.

Good Job Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Getty Images Plus. Good Job is Slate’s advice column on work. Have a workplace problem big or small? Send it to Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir here. (It’s anonymous!) Dear Good Job, I’m a new manager at a three-person organization, with the other two reporting to me. Our industry is professional but casual (think nonprofit-ish). We all enjoy a hybrid work environment. I’m having a problem with one of my staff bringing uninvited guests to Zoom meetings. One of my staff—a truly stellar employee—is active in cat rescue. During virtual meetings, she almost always has at least one cat draped over her and often points the camera toward the cat, not her face. A few people usually comment favorably in the chat. I find it incredibly irritating. One other person has commented to me that they find the cats’ presence unprofessional. I tend to agree. But lately I’m noticing that many people have cats who walk across their screens and otherwise demand attention during meetings, and they think nothing of holding up the work conversation to comment on the cats’ distracting activities. As a new manager, I try to pick my battles very carefully. I don’t want to take away something that brings my employee joy, but I’m also tired of looking at cat butts when we’re trying to accomplish something. Is this a harmless quirk or something I need to address? I generally prefer that people have their cameras on during meetings, so I don’t know if “turn your camera off if you have a cat” is a solution. As you can probably tell, I’m decidedly Not a Cat Person, so I’m trying to be objective here. —No Cats Invited Dear No Cats Invited, Knowing when to pick your battles is probably the most important and most difficult thing for a manager to learn, and also, the cats have become a distraction. But note that framing: I don’t think saying that you don’t like cats or looking at their butts is the right way to go about this, although I’m in agreement with you on the aesthetics at hand. Instead, I would try to reset expectations for meetings and cameras, without singling anyone out. I’d say something like, “I love the camaraderie of our team, and I know many of us are animal lovers, but let’s keep pet commentary to the end of the meeting so we can stay on track, and please keep cameras on (human) faces during meetings.” If the cat rescue employee continues showing her cat’s butt in meetings, I think you can have a private conversation with her about keeping the camera on her during meetings. It’s not a huge ask, and it’s preferable to asking people to turn their cameras off if they have a cat, which feels like an overreaction. And not to minimize what’s happening, but I do want to gently suggest that if your biggest work problem is a few cats on screen, then life is probably pretty OK—but I think you already know that. It sounds like you have a solid team in place and I’m glad that you’re trying to find a solution that will work for everyone. Good managing, you! —Doree Classic Prudie About 20 years ago, I bought a house and some land a few miles outside a mountain town, with an intent to use it as a vacation home. Over the years, I have bought more land around it for the purpose of conservation. As of a few years ago, we were up to nearly 1,000 acres, abutting some national forest and county land. As a project, my kids and I began blazing hiking trails (we are up to about 5 miles) through the land, which would connect to trails in the public land. We then opened the trails to hikers, who could access them from the public land. I had really only one rule, and everyone is already breaking it. Never miss new Slate Advice columns Get the latest from Prudie and our columnists in your inbox each weekday, plus special bonus letters on Saturdays. Advice Workplace Jobs