{"id":3975,"date":"2025-05-07T19:06:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T19:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3975"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:40:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:40:23","slug":"why-you-shouldnt-use-a-virtual-background-in-video-conferences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-you-shouldnt-use-a-virtual-background-in-video-conferences\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Shouldn\u2019t Use a Virtual Background in Video Conferences"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

Ditch that virtual background on your next Teams meeting or Zoom call. Instead, use an image, painting, bookshelf, or another decoration that\u2019s meaningful to you. It\u2019s likely to be a conversation-starter or icebreaker that leads to making connections.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Kris Byron<\/a> of Georgia State University said that changes in where and how employees work may make it difficult to build meaningful coworker relationships. These same changes, however, may provide windows into coworkers\u2019 home lives\u2014offering vivid and seemingly unintended insights into how their coworkers parent, their hobbies, and what their home offices look like.<\/p>\n

Byron and research colleagues Ashley Hardin<\/a> of Washington University in St. Louis, Beth Schinoff<\/a> of the University of Delaware, and Rachel Balven<\/a> of Arizona State University published an article on this topic in Academy of Management Journal<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearch for this study started during the COVID-19 pandemic; my husband and I were actually out paddleboarding, and he said, \u2018I find that when I\u2019m on these Zoom calls, I\u2019m spending so much time looking at the people\u2019s background, and I\u2019m wondering what\u2019s in their homes,\u2019\u201d Byron said. \u201cAnd he said, \u2018You should study that,\u2019 because he knew this is something that I like a lot, to find out how people come to understand each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd originally, we were solely focused on what\u2019s in the background of people\u2019s Zoom calls, and our study actually found that that you should never use these kinds of backgrounds, and that instead, you should really let people know something about yourself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The changing nature of where we work creates a paradox: It can simultaneously increase physical distance between coworkers while potentially decreasing that social distance by providing a vivid and unfiltered glimpse into their home lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are these interruptions that can happen: My dog can bark. My cat can walk across my keyboard,\u201d Byron said. \u201cBut what we found was that these kinds of things are actually wholly positive\u2014we found no negative effects of these at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is that people are desperate to understand each other,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so this information that people can glean unintentionally is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher Ditch that virtual background on your next Teams meeting or Zoom call. Instead, use an image, painting, bookshelf, or another decoration that\u2019s meaningful to you. It\u2019s likely to be a conversation-starter or icebreaker that leads to making connections. Academy of Management Scholar Kris Byron of Georgia State University said that changes in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,79],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communicating","category-teams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy You Shouldn\u2019t Use a Virtual Background in Video Conferences - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-you-shouldnt-use-a-virtual-background-in-video-conferences\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-you-shouldnt-use-a-virtual-background-in-video-conferences\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-you-shouldnt-use-a-virtual-background-in-video-conferences\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Why You Shouldn\u2019t Use a Virtual Background in Video Conferences\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-07T19:06:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T15:40:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-you-shouldnt-use-a-virtual-background-in-video-conferences\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":380,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-you-shouldnt-use-a-virtual-background-in-video-conferences\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/7-person-video-meeting.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"COMMUNICATING\",\"TEAMS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-you-shouldnt-use-a-virtual-background-in-video-conferences\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-you-shouldnt-use-a-virtual-background-in-video-conferences\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-you-shouldnt-use-a-virtual-background-in-video-conferences\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why You Shouldn\u2019t Use a Virtual Background in Video Conferences - 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