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I don't like being on camera and I'd wager many (if not most) people don't. We do it because we have to, not because we want to.

And I don't have to because I don't work with clients or take roles in which me being on camera for more than 5 minutes during the entire duration of the role is a requirement.

Between voice and screen sharing, we can handle all business without monitoring each other's 2-dimensional faces.

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Perhaps I'm vain, but I like to be on the camera during meetings. It's that one little extra iota of personalization. So I'm speaking to my team's faces, and vice versa, instead of just speaking to coloured circles with letters in them.

I don't begrudge others to have their cameras on, but if someone else has it on, I'll turn mine on.

For me, it depends on the meeting. For discussions with the same people I talk to every day, when none of us prefer camera, we typically don’t. In a 1:1, I do. In a meeting with another team, I do. I find having my camera on to be taxing, and I’m not always exactly looking fresh and clean and shaved for work. Often wearing the same clothes I wore yesterday. Often sitting in a messy office. The focus is on work, not optics during conversations generally.

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