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Comment by mcphilip | Hacker News Reader

I think ideally it should be up to the employee to return when they feel safe.

That being said, I look forward to going back to the office. It’ll be nice to see people again —- few people bother to turn on their video on zoom anymore for anything other than one-on-ones, myself included, and that is starting to feel alienating to me. I don’t think it’s wise having a policy that you must have video enabled, though, it’s nice being able to sprawl out on the couch and get comfortable for a particularly long, boring meeting.

Edit: to address the actual contents of the article, I think below is a better read that doesn’t reduce people’s concerns about remote working to wanting to save sandwhich shops:

https://marker.medium.com/remote-work-is-killing-the-hidden-...

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> I don’t think it’s wise having a policy that you must have video enabled

In my anecdotal experience it is good to strongly encourage video use. Well before the pandemic, I noticed that our colleagues in Hyderabad were far more involved and engaged when we made it nearly a requirement that everyone on the call turned on video. Especially once you've visited in person at least once so you have a little bit of a personal connection, video can help preserve some of that. Disembodied voices on zoom calls are the worst thing ever.

Interesting. For whatever reason my team keeps video on for all meeting unless there are bandwidth issues. But I agree now that it would be far worse if folks didn’t show their face regularly.

I don't have a webcam on my work setup, no one uses video, it hasn't bothered me at all.

Same here, I have my own desktop, camera is unplugged and I put it on only for skype with parents. Company didn't give us laptops, so has 0 lever to ask for anything. Most folks on our conf call system (webex) use audio only.

I made tons of other, more useful things (meals, real work, babysitting etc.) during those dull calls that are not really about me (or they cover me for 1 minute in 30-60 minutes). It would be really tiring to keep looking engaged while I couldn't care less about the topic (self pressure is a bitch), 3-6x per day.

For me I always have my camera off. My PC desk is in my bedroom my bf usually has to walk behind me to get to the door. If I had a dedicated office room I'd leave the camera on.

> I think ideally it should be up to the employee to return when they feel safe.

agree, but not as an explicit company policy. what I mean is, if the company officially says something like "the office is open, but you don't have to come back until you feel safe", this can put pressure on employees to agree that they feel safe. if you're one of the last people to return, maybe you start feeling pressure to give some sort of concrete reason why. I think it would result in a lot of people returning when they don't actually feel safe.

imo there are three reasonable positions: a) office is closed, only essential staff allowed on premises; b) office is open, but physical attendance is strictly optional (without any caveats about "feeling safe"); or c) office is open and you have to come back.

edit to address the article you linked: I do feel for those people who do office support work and suddenly have no customers. but doesn't it suggest that a lot of that work wasn't really necessary in the first place? I just can't see how it can be a net harm for remote workers to cook themselves hot lunches every day (or just spend less for a similar cold cut sandwich).

> I just can't see how it can be a net harm for remote workers to cook themselves hot lunches every day

How is it not net harm to have to do a chore that you didn't have to do before?

when I went to the office, my choices were leftovers/sandwich from home or takeout. I still have the option of takeout, but I choose it much less often now that I have the option to cook something.

Anyone that didn't have free, onsite lunch had the chore 'provide self with lunch'.

I'm pretty sure that free onsite lunch is rather exceptional. People that don't like to cook can still buy lunch or whatever.

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