Stop making employees turn on webcams during meetings
cnn.com
cnn.com
What a ridiculous article. In this time of remote work, connecting is hard. Humans are not input/output devices. We need to be able to see each other in the eye. Managers, especially, should set the right example and turn their on cameras - and ask their team to do so too.
This isn't what happens during webcam meetings. If you're looking at the camera (to try and provide eye contact), you're not able to see anyone looking back at you.
> Managers, especially, should set the right example and turn their on cameras - and ask their team to do so too.
Definitely not, and I wouldn't work for a manager that cared if my camera was on or not.
Bodelin Webcam Teleprompter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn4LUoIpf1M
As both a manager, and as somebody who reports to a manager, no, absolutely not.
In any workplace I've been in, teamwork is important, even for technical ICs. It really doesn't send a signal that you want to work with other people or participate in a discussion if you're just sitting there with the camera off. It would be the same as sitting facing the wall in an in-person meeting. You could still hear but you're basically signaling you don't respect the discussion. If that's true, it's a different problem, same as if you're worried your boss is recording you or judging your furniture.
Personally I'd quit a job that told me I couldn't hold meetings with my camera on.
That only matters if you aren't otherwise working with people and participating in discussions. Meetings are not where most of that happens. They aren't even where the most important of that happens.
If you feel strongly about your right to turn it on if it pleases you, then you should agree with people who want the right to turn it off if they want.
No, we don't, why would you think that?
We never have camera on and work is going smoothly. Nobody ever suggested using it. I don't even know how the new hires look like, but it doesn't matter, because I can treat them like humans without attaching a mental representation of their physical form. I got this skill from an experience called 'phone call'.
I wonder if it is a culture difference. I'm from eastern Europe and no one I have asked uses camera, outside those forced due to working directly with the US. People who can't stand not being able to judge their coworkers faces, where are you from?
Anyway, put your camera on if you want to, I can get used to ignoring it. Please don't force your preferences on others.
The first meeting they commented on the weight I put on since I was last on webcam and if I didn't want those comments I should use my webcam more often.
I no longer feel any shred of guilt saying 'no' each time they ask now.
All that said a camera only helps so much. There is something to be said for traveling to your office periodically to put in real face time. I’m looking forward to offices starting to open up here soon.
It's not simple at all.
Sure, you cannot replace an in-person experience with an online experience with no other changes. But why would you? You can't replace a car ride with a motorcycle, but you can absolutely travel effectively with a motorcycle. Thinking there's only one way to work, and if that way doesn't work in all contexts the working context is correct, is just silly.
Sure, but how does that relate to video calls? They are by definition not in person, camera or not.
The opposite is true as well. Why show up in person when you can be effective remotely?
I feel like we're just saying things now though.
Building relationships is always easier face to face, whether it's a business, platonic, or romantic relationship.
When participants join, all they'd hear is a little chirp, and then invariably, someone would ask "who just joined?"
Announcing themselves just seems like a time saver that is no longer necessary in the videoconference age.
Is it nice to see coworkers? Yes, IMO. Nice enough to set a general expectation that cameras be on during meetings? Sure, I guess. Nice enough that someone that declines (explicitly or implicitly) for whatever reason should face even a hint of a resistance to that decision? Emphatically no.
I got the HR complain after 4 times I think :)
The cost of free will is to sometimes be difficult to understand for other people.
My webcam is always off. Nobody expects me to have it on anymore. In the beginning I got a few questions about why. I said I don't like how I look on camera to other people. Nobody even tried to convince me to have it on.
You are not an adult until you learn to do what you want and handle other people's opinions as exactly that - their opinions. Its what they want, not what you want. The difference is very important.
Tldr... Grow balls, learn to do what you want and be OK with what other people may think. After a few days or weeks, it becomes normal for them and they can focus on other important topics like who wins the bachelor this year.
Social groups must have highly variable definitions of adult behavior.
However, my camera is off when I haven’t had time to take a shower, a dashing down the hall for a bio break, and many other times. When I talk with my hands too, my camera is definitely on, and I appreciate the nuance of others’ facial expressions.
What does matter are non-transactional relationships among teams. That's what remote work has really made harder. Cameras don't make relationships more or less transactional. What makes relationships less transactional is an hour of team building. Play a few rounds of Among Us on company time...whatever the team feels like it can come together around that isn't work, which is what water cooler breaks amounted to, anyway.
Regardless, if employees don't feel comfortable being seen by the team, that's a sign of deeper team problems. Simply making them turn the camera on won't fix it.
On the other hand, my personal M1 Macbook does not even go past 50C on 30+ person Zoom chats.
I'd still close my feed because the problem I have is too many meetings, and more than half of them are not important. But when you say, this Zoom session should have been an email/slack/document, I come across as "that" person and get shunned.
Don't make assumptions about other's situations just because it doesn't match yours.
While I'm not interrupted very often due to my role, it's been quite a frustrating experience.
I actually took a similar stance to the person in the article and after a few weeks just moved my camera to point further and further towards a wall and just keep my hands in frame. A few grumbles but no calls from HR, yet.
When you really need a meeting, people shouldn’t have an issue turning on their webcams. Better yet, try to make the meeting in-person. Real meetings are infrequent and important.
On the other hand, last year I had to go to a 20+ person "remote offsite" full of content I didn't care about delivered with very little interaction. We were told we had to keep our cameras on for that, I just pretended I didnt hear that part.
This should probably become an interview question when screening candidates for companies that care about this sort of thing.
Or at least something to mention in the job description, like "Role requires the use of audio / text only during meetings, video is forbidden" or "Role requires 5-20 hours of face time per week".
That is, why a lot of companies get away with "making" employees to do things. The more, the less there is protection of jobs.
I do occasionally keep my camera off when it would be obvious that I'm doing something else during a boring/useless meeting, but it has nothing to do with "anxiety".
First, you can tell if a zoom is being recorded, and I'm guessing most of the time they are not. 1 in 200 of meetings I've been in the last 2 years has been recorded.
Second, that's quite a dramatic stance. Colleague's mother-in-law? Seriously?
The benefit to seeing and being seen by your coworkers is very great.
I'm pretty sure you can record a Zoom call in several ways without the app detecting it.
> Colleague's mother-in-law? Seriously?
It's a joke. Meaning, you must assume that you are constantly recorded during your work on Zoom, and that the recordings can wind up anywhere and used for any purpose.
In a ten person meeting in person, is everyone in the room going to stare at you personally for the entire hour? If you’re in Zoom, that’s what you see. Huge difference in social stress not knowing if people are looking at you and seeing a video view that makes it look like everyone is.