Microsoft is working on a new feature for the Teams cooperation platform that will let users customize their appearance before joining a video call.
In a product roadmap update, the company explains that Teams users will soon have access to multiple different video filters, giving them the ability to move up and down on certain aspects of the video. its transmission. "Before joining a gathering, you can use filters to finely adjust lighting levels and soften facial features to customize your appearance," Microsoft wrote. The company first announced plans to introduce video filters last summer, but is now targeting an August 2021 release window.
The myth of the perfect office worker
The new Microsoft Teams feature is likely to be useful to a wide range of usersEspecially those who work in a dimly lit home office or use a low-quality webcam. However, it can be argued that such a feature could also thwart some gains made since the start of the pandemic in terms of employee hopes. By disconnecting staff from the tightly controlled office environment, the pandemic shattered the myth of the perfect office worker: someone who is always collected, always tidy, and also unflinchingly professional. In his place
there is a new acceptance that employees often juggle many other aspects of their lives while fulfilling their job responsibilities; Perhaps they have children or pets to care for, or a family crisis to deal with. Even before the pandemic, it was interesting for a child to interrupt a live television interview, but interludes in video conferences have become a familiar rule. These auxiliary responsibilities may elude someone from putting on makeup before a meeting, but experience of working remotely has proven that they have little impact on your productivity and the quality of your work. The pandemic has altered the way people relate to work, for better or worse. More by introducing a feature developed to help workers rebuild the detrimental illusion of perfection,
Microsoft is unconsciously fighting against one of the most positive results: a healthier perspective of the relationship between work and routine life.