Surely being on camera for most virtual work meetings is now the standard?

[CantFindTheBeat]

I've just read a post where someone said that not wanting to be on video for a work Teams call whilst working from home was perfectly fine.

Surely this is no longer the case?

Obviously illness, rare WiFi issues and other and minor exceptions happen, but on the whole, don't most employers and managers expect people to be seen as well as heard these days?

I had a meeting with a team of people to train them on a system. There were 8 of them, only 2 of whom I'd spoken to before. They all had their cameras off so I asked could they please put them on. Ime a lot of people who don't have their cameras on are actually doing other work rather than paying full attention.

I am too - autism and ADHD :)
Don't mind being referred to as a disabled. But then again, being autistic language was never my strong point so thanks again for being rude and discriminatory

Also OP to answer your question - no, we are not expected to have cameras on.
But then we're only allowed to use our laptop cameras - if you are looking at that then you won't be looking at the content present on an external monitor, as PP said it's also hard to stay in frame.

We have webcams at work which are brilliant, high quality, adjustable and if we were allowed them at home (even buying our own?) I'd have my camera on all the time. But not the laptop cameras.

The people who have them on usually do the least work ... They are obsessed more with pretending to work and less with any useful output.

We are expected to have cameras on in a small meeting setting, or when speaking in a larger meeting.
We can have cameras off if just in a listening role / in a big presentation style meeting.
I work for a university in support services.

Also I forgot to add our terrible cameras have the opposite effect... We all look really bored unless we stare at the camera and actively arrange our facial muscles!
When in reality you may look off into space thinking

Due to the nature of our business, our laptops don't have camera function enabled.

You've evidently never used generally crappy NHS Teams in a rural setting with limited bandwidth.... whoever's talking would usually have their camera on but not everyone all at once unless it's a smallish meeting. We have enough technical issues just connecting...

@Dorrmouse yeah exactly Teams is so bad!
I don't work for the NHS but
Getting to hear everyone is hard enough let alone cameras.

Hybrid working is still supposed to be engaging like a face to face meeting. I always comment if the others don’t have their camera on.

We basically only have cameras on when someone is onboarding, for normal meetings it's just a bit pointless for us.

You've articulated beautifully everything I feel about being on camera that I didn't know how to explain!

Ok I’ll say it. I think having your camera off in a small - medium meeting when others have them on is rude.

I have only ever had a couple camera stays off I have no interest in seeing anyone else just to have meeting if we can get it done without cameras don't see what benefit having them is

Totally agree with this. I usually keep my camera on, but if the meeting’s medium size (8-16 people say) and longish then I’ll occasionally turn it off for a little bit, either because I want to e.g. grab something from the kitchen, or just to give my brain and facial muscles relief from the strain of permanently looking attentive and interested.

I’d never thought of it like that before, but you’re right, the difference is that during in-person meetings, for a lot of the time you can tell that everyone is looking at the person speaking and no one is looking at you so there’s down time. As well as, of course, being able to see all your flaws and quirks reflected back at you in online meetings, so it’s hard to forget about what you look like to other people as you would in real life.

In my experience the laziest person in my team always has the camera on. Makes them look important whilst doing no real work. I detest having my camera on because I get self conscious and it distracts me. We generally have a cameras off culture unless we have external people in the meeting

I did wonder this too.

We often don’t bother anymore, although it can depend who it is. My boss’s boss, who is a typical (in my experience) woman just made more senior and likes to throw her weight around always pesters people to have them on. If it’s with the CEO we usually do as well.

Complete garbage. I can get far more done without my camera on because I can work properly and still pay attention. I have Teams and my external webcam on one screen that is more to the side and the main screen I work from in front of me. If I’m on camera I have to spend more time facing that screen and it’s also really obvious with camera on if you’re working away in a meeting as opposed to giving the meeting your sole attention

Hardly. The times I have the camera off I'm multitasking and doing work while listening in to the meeting. I'll go off mute if I want to contribute. Ive not enough hours in the day for all the work I need to do.

So you're far more productive in meetings with your camera off because you can ignore the meeting and do something else?

That's like saying you're far more productive wfh because you can do all the washing, ironing, cleaning, etc during the workday.

The discussion is about people contributing to meetings and the behaviours you describe are exactly why many bosses want cameras on.

It's different because people can see into my house.

If it's just colleagues I don't mind. If it's a meeting with external attendees, sometimes I don't want them seeing into my home.

I can contribute to meetings and work at the same time. Not every meeting needs my 100% attention and when I average somewhere around 5 or 6 Teams meetings a day, I simply can’t spend all of them not working at the same time. If I’m there just to support my team for example, they don’t need me leading the meeting (because they’re more than capable) and I can/will chip in where necessary.

It’s also nothing like your comparison, that would be like me saying if I have my camera off I can do my other job.

Also the value of meetings depends on the org culture.
Mine has a habit of herding everyone into meeting for progress reports, my own update takes 5 minutes... Why would I waste 55ims listening to irrelevance?

Nope we never use cameras. Our laptops for into docking stations and then we use two monitors with the laptop closed. So it's a faff to use the laptop open with the camera. The only time I do use it is if I have a 1-1 with my manager and half the time she keeps hers off.

I don't mind either way

It’s also nothing like your comparison, that would be like me saying if I have my camera off I can do my other job.

OK, that's a fair point tbf.

In general I do feel though that some people have become a bit entitled about the whole wfh thing and almost feel like they should be dictating their working conditions to their employer (not aiming that at you specifically).