Muting myself for a reason

Copper Contributor

Many of us work from home now and so, we're quite often having to do meetings and things like that.  I don't work from home, usually, but sometimes I do.  Like today, for instance.  Unfortunately, my family has yet to grasp the concept of "yes, you see me but....I'm just as at work as when you don't see me".  I was a little flustered today as I was sharing my screen during a meeting and trying to show people something while my family would not leave me alone.  Not a problem.  It was time to get stern.  So I hit FN and F1 to mute and proceeded with being stern so they would get the message that I was working.  Unfortunately, Microsoft Teams does not care what I have told my computer to do.  I do not know what's best for what people in my meeting need to hear from me and when to hear it.  Microsoft Teams does apparently. Microsoft Teams un-muted my computer.  My decision was overrode by a program. Why?  Why would that be written into the program?  Why does Teams know my situation better than I do?  Why would any software engineer think that Teams would know that I would want my computer unmuted after I muted it?  Was it not a software engineer?  Was it some guy with Business Admin degree that is the boss of a software engineer?  Why has it been so long since 1983 or whenever the first commercial program hit personal computers and these people have still not figured out simple concepts like "computer programs shouldn't override a user's decision except in matters of safety".  I know it's everyone's goal to cut down on customer service calls but they're just calls.  We can't undo what we've said 

6 Replies
Maybe you should try the Teams shortcut instead. Ctrl+Shift +M.
Or even better get a Teams certified device that has a mute button

@Ed Woodrick I already have a mute system on my computer.  I do not expect it to be overrode.  It would be like coming home to find out the nanny enrolled the kids into a different school district.  Why was my decision overrode by something that thinks it knows better but has no idea of what variables there are?  That is why we have the human factor.  Humans have the ability to see new unforeseen variables and react to them.  Software can only see the variables that the engineers happened to think of.  They'll never get them all.  Humans make the final decisions and they're not to be overrode by software and its engineers, even if the engineers think they're Nostradamus and can foresee all potential variables.

I'm guessing they don't teach this in business administration or any kind of computer science schools.  They shouldn't have to.

@Cuatdrak Does Fn-F1 mute the microphone in any application? On my Dell laptop that will silence the speaker, it does nothing to the mic. 

You are right. I meant F5 or whatever it is. I was on my desktop when I wrote this. My laptop is different but it was definitely the mic that was muted. The button shows a mic inside of a slashed circle and lights up when it's muted. Part of the problem is, it will actually mute when you use the function keys but only stays that way for a few seconds until Teams unmutes it, so it's easy to believe that you have effectively muted yourself.
Did you use the built-in mic on the computer or an external mic? On my HP it is working fine to mute using FN+F8 and Teams indicates that the mic is muted and keeps it muted. Could perhaps be a bug in the driver of the mic?
Built in mic. It's a Dell version of a Toughbook. Teams is the only thing that overrides my mute button. Now that I know about it, I mute through Teams but it's a little late.