Work-from-home is going to be a thing for quite a while yet to come. Major companies are telling employees to get used to working from home for the foreseeable future. Solo entrepreneurs are finding fewer meetings being held at the local Starbucks and more being held on Zoom.

Remote meetings are now a firmly established mode of business.

Accepting that, it’s high time we reaffirm a sense of professionalism in how we handle online meetings. A large part of that professionalism relies on how we conduct ourselves while videoconferencing. A remote business meeting should have the same standards one would expect from an in-person business meeting.

Here’s how to say goodbye to amateur hour.

Be on time

It’s bad enough to be late for a real-time meeting. Being late for an online meeting can be even more off-putting to clients or colleagues. While we’ve placed a lot of faith in technology, there is always the concern in the back of one’s head that there are connection problems or other technical issues at play. When it is discovered, instead, that you were running behind and didn’t notify anyone, it can send a poor message.

This can be especially damaging to your professional reputation if you’re late for a multi-person meeting, and people are forced to sit through a recap just so you can get caught up.

Do your best to be on time for online meetings. Be a little early if you can so that should there be technical issues, you can have them sorted out before your session is scheduled to begin.

Make your setting as professional as you

When work-from-home first became the “new normal” for many people, it was understandable — even encouraged — to cut people some slack when it came to what the background looked like during a remote meeting or how well-groomed you might appear.

Well, you’ve had more than enough time now to set yourself up.

Dress as if you were in the office or on a sales visit. No old t-shirts or robes, please. Comb or brush your hair. Look fresh-faced and awake as opposed to looking like someone who just rolled out of bed.

Yes, you’d be surprised how many people I’ve talked with online who looked like they just got up despite it being well into the afternoon. We can be better.

As for your work-from-home workspace, by now, you should have carved out your home-based work area. What does the background look like? Are clients and colleagues looking at your unmade bed? Are they looking at a kitchen counter with an open loaf of bread and jelly jar? Take some time to make sure your work area presents well.

Make sure spouses, children, roommates, and the like know to avoid your area — especially the camera-view area. If you have pets, try to keep them closed off from your work area during video conferencing time. Turn off the radio or TV. Put your phones on silent.

And finally, avoid the temptation to use green-screen backdrops. Those are more for your online game nights than your business days.

Work on your timing

They say timing is everything.

It’s no different when being part of a remote teleconference. Yes, it’s difficult to know precisely when or how to take your turn in a conversation when many of the subtle visual cues we often rely on are obscured. It takes practice.

By now, hopefully, you’ve had that practice. If not, pay attention to how others interact in video meetings. Do the ones who interrupt and try to shout over everyone else actually get anywhere? Or do the ones who take advantage of a natural opening to make their pitch get taken more seriously?

Watch for signals. Make sure your signals can be seen.

A well-run meeting may encourage everyone to stay muted unless they have something important to say. Turning off your mute could be the signal to others that you have a point to make. Likewise, note when others are doing the same.

Don’t fidget

People are easily distracted, and during a long videoconference when there are many people taking turns to speak, people understandably get a bit bored. Resist the temptation to fidget at your chair, play with your phone, pet the cat, or anything else that may be a distraction to other members of your meeting.

You’d be surprised how easy people stop paying attention when there’s a distraction. Look focused and stay focused. Others will follow your lead, and you will all get through the meeting having accomplished what you initially set out to do.

Resist the temptation to multitask

This is related to the “don’t fidget” advice. It’s tempting to want to divide your attention between whatever meeting is going on and something else. It could be some email. It could be tweaking a design. It could be a round of Angry Birds or an episode of whatever is hot on Netflix right now.

Whatever your distraction, be aware that the chances are high that the other person or people you’re meeting online can sense that they don’t have all your attention.

Whatever it is that you’re splitting your time with, it can wait until after your meeting.

And there’s nothing quite as embarrassing as having other folks suddenly hear the sounds of a video game or TV show blaring unexpectedly in the middle of your business meeting.

Whatever it is, it can wait. There’s a reason you’re participating in a remote meeting. Try to keep your focus on that.

Put the sandwich down

I almost didn’t include this. It seemed too obvious. But then I had a group meeting with some marketing folks with whom I was working on a project. One of them saw no problem eating a meatball sandwich in front of me and talking with her mouth full.

Maybe I was supposed to be impressed with how comfortable she felt to be eating during a meeting. To be honest, though, I was partially distracted by the eating, but also by the realization that there are still people who think eating during a video conference is an acceptable idea.

I’m not a terribly fussy person, but it does strike me as exceedingly unprofessional. If I were a client, I would certainly have been turned off. As a temporary colleague, I was unimpressed.

It doesn’t take a lot of work to time your lunch outside of your work schedule. Eating during a professional business meeting online is total amateur hour.

---

While there may be some debate regarding the long-term benefits and drawbacks of working from home, it’s still part of the new way of doing business and will likely be so for some time.

We’ve had our settling in period. We’ve had time to adjust. Now is the time to stop making excuses and get your professional groove back on. It will help your business and your reputation as someone to be taken seriously. It will boost the confidence others have in you, and can only work to your advantage during these sometimes trying times.

And hey, nothing says that once your remote meeting is over, you can’t switch on a few minutes of Angry Birds.

Even professionals need to kick back now and then.