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Comment by ehnto | Hacker News Reader

I turn my camera off on big calls and it helps a bunch, there's a process running in the back of my mind when it's on that is constantly screening what I am doing just incase it looks stupid on camera. It feels like being in a panopticon. You never know if someone is looking. It's very tiring.

I don't have the same issue in person because you know when people are looking at you in person and there's heaps of context for everyone.

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I want you and everyone else to know that sometimes on large zoom calls I will "pin" one person in the call and stare at them for multiple minutes in a row on fullscreen. I do this all the time.

Mother of God

You woke up and chose violence

I do this too. I usually cycle through a few people if multiple people have their camera on. I also take snips and draw mustaches/glasses/graffiti on them in paint during really boring meetings.

It would be hilarious if you suddenly or accidentally shared the screen with that artwork ongoing

Something like this recently happened in one of my university classes. We had a remote class in the evening on Teams. One of my buddies felt very tired so he thought he'll zone out for a bit and mute the call. After he proceeded to mute the call he realized that he'd actually muted the teacher for the whole class. It was hilarious, especially when he told me after. :)

We had a boss leave the camera on during a poop. We still are not sure if it was a joke or it was real. It sure seemed real.

This is a wild play if you wear glasses.

Hah. I wouldn't say that it is creepy but I get a bit uneasy thinking about it. Ok so I judge people on what they have in their basket in the store. I am not a greater person.

I'm in a regular large zoom call and I'm pretty sure a few participants get pinned more than the rest combined. The day Zoom accidentally reveals they've been building these stats should be entertaining.

I am so happy my team, and most of my company as a whole, has an unstated "camera off" custom. There are a few project/product managers and higher-ups that like to be seen, I guess, but there's never been anyone announcing "Please everyone turn on your cameras".

It's interesting when we have meetings with external partners that appear to have a "camera on" policy, and they are the only people with their cameras on.

I've gotten myself fired for doing this. I kid you not, but they took it as a sign of disinterest and somejow never thought to bring up "yo Martin, what's up with that?" 100% ridiculous childish twattery, but just sayin' ... you can end up in trouble. This was literally the only thing they brought up as "evidence" for my alleged "attitude problem".

(I can foresee "dodged a bullet" responses, so just to pre-empt that: I didn't. I actually enjoyed working there, and being fired led to significant financial troubles, and even greater mental health problems. I got hit by a bullet and didn't dodge anything.)

Wow, I don't know where you live but I would say that's enough for wrongful dismissal here.

My contract wasn't renewed; technically it's not really "getting fired", although it doesn't really make that much of a difference in reality. Even if there was a wrongful dismissal case here, I wouldn't want to pursue it – the headache and stress just isn't worth it.

I always keep my camera off unless it's a handful of situations, like meeting someone for the first time, or making a big presentation and introducing myself. Turning the camera on is more the rare thing.

On technical calls with two or three people where we all know each other we rarely turn the cameras on. For big meetings, the bosses prefer to have cameras on the whole time, but at least require that we start meetings that way, then we can turn them off after the meeting really gets going.

Agreed for big calls. For smaller calls, I try to turn on my camera if someone of equal or lower rank has their camera on, and for anyone who has theirs on in a one-on-one.

Sometimes on a call where I'm familiar with everyone, I'll pretend my internet connection is being flaky and ask everyone to turn cameras off. I'm well aware I can just turn incoming video off, but most people aren't.

> I'm well aware I can just turn incoming video off, but most people aren't

I don't have a flaky connection, but I hate having my laptop turn into a jet engine just so I can see tiny thumbnails moving around. On Teams I can easily turn off incoming video, but on webex (web client) I haven't found a way to do that.

I discovered the same as well, highly recommend turning off the camera.

I do it very often because I often walk around my office or play with toys in my hands when I am collecting my thoughts or focusing on listening to people. Also help not feeling the urge to multitask and do other things on the computer.

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