Comment by Dan_Sylveste | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Dan_Sylveste | Hacker News Reader

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>I can't imagine a circumstance where I would compel someone to share a video of themselves when they're apparently not comfortable with it.

Wow. I can't imagine contracting work from people (and giving them access to commercial-in-confidence data) and yet not knowing with 100% certainty 100% of the time that the people I'm talking to are the people I'm contracting with, you know, the ones I background-checked, the ones I can hold accountable in court.

You know what happened with remote schooling? Teachers didn't demand that pupils turned on their cameras because of the same 'it'll make them uncomfortable' excuse. Result? Kids turned their computers on, their cameras off and played minecraft all day for 18 months.

Don't be odd about this. Nothing at all about face to face contact is uncomfortable for adults. That shouldn't be something that's normalised and it's detrimental to society to allow for it. You are literally reading an article that outlines all the negatives about your 'cameras are uncomfortable' mindset and you still haven't twigged?

Keep doing it your way, but don't be surprised when you've had your entire company's data exfiltrated and sold to a competitor by the 'person' you were too uncomfortable to ask to appear on video.

And don't for one microsecond retain people who mysteriously only produce quality work when 'unsupervised' or 'overnight' or when they're 'on the phone all the time.' Fire them! You have no idea who they're talking to or who's really doing the work. They're not an asset to your company, they're a bullshit artist!

Two counterpoints:

First, the top performers on my team right now are essentially ghosts. One I just went on a business trip outside the country with, and I hadn't seen his face for a year and I might not see it again ever. Another one is my "lieutenant" and in two years I've seen him face to face twice. No video. He's probably leaving the country soon and I don't care, because he'll be in the same longitude.

The other point, since this is FAANG, how is the conversation going to go with HR if I want to terminate someone because they won't turn on their camera?

>The other point, since this is FAANG, how is the conversation going to go with HR if I want to terminate someone because they won't turn on their camera?

Well, I guess going by what you've said they won't care either. I don't know how you can run a company productively over the long term if nobody cares, though.

This is a really overbearing and insecure take. If you know the voice of the people you work with and actually pay attention to their work, do screenshares, etc. it’s really obvious if they know what is going on and if they are doing the work.

If you think looking at a camera view of someone will prevent them from defrauding you, you are an ideal con artist’s mark because you’re taking your cues from the easier parts to fake.

>If you know the voice of the people you work with and actually pay attention to their work, do screenshares, etc. it’s really obvious if they know what is going on and if they are doing the work.

This is also fine. But look at the reply below yours, when the 'team manager' is littering their comments with 'my top performers are ghosts' and 'I don't care.'

Your strategy involves focus and care applied through one perspective. My strategy involves focus and care applied through another perspective. Yours is arguably better, but I don't think mine is insecure, mine is perhaps a reaction to some of the nonsense I'm seeing in this thread in which managers admit they have staff who they think are outsourcing their work or just can't do the job but are 'uncomfortable' dealing with it. I don't think they're uncomfortable, I just think they don't care. I can't stand don't carers. I've had to work on too many teams managed by don't carers and staffed with don't carers and I just don't get the mentality. It annoys me.

Exactly. Turn your damn camera on. It’s rude to not…

Might be true for where you work. But it's not universal true.

Even in the same company I had teams where no one would turn on their camera and some where everybody would.

I think it's rude to expect me to try to do the same things we do in person, just 100% of the time because I can't tell if you're looking at me at any given time..

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