Working from home - cameras on laptops?

[bbcessex]

I work from home at least two days a week, and regularly have conference calls etc.

In the past, it's not standard to have laptop cameras switched on for conf calls as we are a financial services company and it's not been common, but that's changing with teams about to regularly work more remotely due to corona policy.

I actually much prefer seeing the person / people I'm talking to and i think it helps with connecting / focus / communication. I've given my team notice that as we are all going to be working from home more (not formally told to yet but likely) I'd like to have work laptop cameras on during team calls wherever possible going forward.

Most people are fine - I've had the obvious comments 'oh no, I'll have to get dressed, ha ha', but a couple of people are really not happy about it (without being specific about why).

It's not mandatory of course, and i can't / won't enforce it, but I will encourage it.

Does anyone else have a view on this? Is it unreasonable to encourage?

You are supposed to be engaged in the meeting, not ignoring it

To be fair a lot of meetings are pointless and I understand why people get on with other stuff, I do that too!

But refusing a video call isn't really very different to refusing to go to a meeting in your office and insisting on dialling in from your desk down the corridor instead.

I'm referring however to someone who has been asked to dial in at a time that they've agreed to (accepting the meeting invite), then deciding it's boring so they go off and do something else for the hour.
Meh, I do that frequently, put myself on mute or do something else while listening, depends on the situation, we will of all sat in on meetings before that only a small part is relevant to us, I'd rather do something then sit twiddling my thumbs waiting for the part that I'm needed for.

In addition to that, we've had an instance at work when one of my colleagues joined a video call and everyone got to see what a mess her house was. After that call, we had an email from our MD demanding that we all have our houses in order when joining video calls with colleague and clients. This was clearly aimed at the said colleague and very embarrassing for her as well as awkward for all others

That is totally outrageous. I would have been having words with my boss if they told me to clean my house for a video call. Who the hell do they think they are?

It's not about personal data being 'received', it's about it being 'processed'. What software are you using for videoconferencing? If you are using the public internet how can you can guarantee the personal data is being processed in line with EU law or the privacy shield?

It could be considered an invasion of privacy as it has a surveillance connotation- your home is being fitted out with internet connected cameras and microphones, you don't know what is being done with the meta data that smart devices collect, I for one would not increase this risk of my privacy being invaded by engaging in video conferencing if I didn't have to i.e it was not contractural.

@cologne4711

I don't think it's outrageous at all. I think the colleague concerned should be advised that if they have a laptop, they can actually sit in a way that doesn't show their entire house anyway. It's so unnecessary.

People are like kids sometimes - taking umbrage about being asked to do something properly, rather than recognising that the fault perhaps lies closer to home.

Butterwhy do enlighten me, why do data protection laws not cover conference calls in the home?

@Goldenbear

I don't know where to begin with this.

Do you use Skype at all or FaceTime?

If it's a blanket "no" to any Internet forms of video then I guess a company would have to make an exception for you.

I'm autistic and find it very hard to take part in meetings without seeing people. I can't follow who is taking and I have no idea when it's ok to talk myself so I tend to stay much quieter than if I can raise a hand so the chair knows I want to talk.
I think people who refuse to use video are selfish and not team players. There's no real reason to refuse, just excuses to zone out and not do your job properly by actively taking part in the meeting.

That is totally outrageous. I would have been having words with my boss if they told me to clean my house for a video call. Who the hell do they think they are?

To be fair to the MD, we work in a client facing business and some calls happen with our clients joining video conferences. Although I don't think that the way we keep our homes is our MD's business, at the same time if we choose to work at home on the day when we know we may have video calls with our clients, I really would think it would be reasonable to have your home appear as professional as can be to avoid embarrassment to the company. If our office was a total pigsty, it would give a poor impression to our clients and visitors. When we work at home, it's not altogether unreasonable to ask that our home environment doesn't appear to be a pigsty on video calls with our clients either.

On a personal level, I think I'd be embarrassed to join a video call with either my colleagues or clients if my house was a total tip. I'd be even more embarrassed if anyone felt compelled to point it out to me as it's not normally the culture in our company to do this sort of thing.

I think people who refuse to use video are selfish and not team players. There's no real reason to refuse, just excuses to zone out and not do your job properly by actively taking part in the meeting

I completely disagree with that. If any of my colleagues had challenges similar to yours, and I knew of them, I would absolutely accommodate and join a video call but the fact that I don't want to do it by default does not make me either selfish, not a team player or a person, who zones out in meetings and doesn't want to do a proper job by actively taking part in a meeting!

I think people who refuse to use video are selfish and not team players. There's no real reason to refuse, just excuses to zone out and not do your job properly by actively taking part in the meeting.

What is a "team player" exactly?

You have a particular reason for preferring to see people - why can't you accept other people have different needs? Surely that would be the real "team player" view?

taking umbrage about being asked to do something properly, rather than recognising that the fault perhaps lies closer to home

Seriously? You genuinely think it's ok for someone to tell an employee that they need to clean and tidy their house so the background is neat and tidy for a video call?

I think not. Happy to do call, don't wear PJs anyway but am not tidying the house. A messy house does not affect my ability to work.

The GDPR argument is ingenuous but doesn't work.

ingenious

On a personal level, I think I'd be embarrassed to join a video call with either my colleagues or clients if my house was a total tip

If external people are on the call I see your point a bit. But with me all you can see is a wall with a couple of pictures anyway.

Clearly touched a nerve @ Hingeandbracket

WTAF is the point of that comment?

A PP said it is 'not processing' you are wrong it is processing. Equally, a signed contract does not give employer's carte blanche to use the personal data of their employees however they wish!

@cologne4711

But as we've established earlier in the thread, people don't actually NEED to tidy their houses to join a video call.

They just need to know how to angle the camera and set themselves up somewhere where you don't have to see everything.

The manager was poor in communicating what they wanted - they should offer advice or training (ugh) on video calls if that's the outcome they wanted...

but...

It's so typical of British office culture that people take offence to being told ANYTHING at all.

We are expected to have it on and I don't see how people can justify having an issue with it. We also have video calls when in the office as we work with offshore teams. I work for a bank with 230,000 employees so it's hardly unusual to use video calls these days. Having said all that we are ending up with bandwidth issues and do therefore often switch off video when large numbers of people are WFH.

@GinDaddy

which is why I get hugely frustrated with some British people's attitude to WFH.

You keep on sneering at "British people" - why?

It's so typical of British office

There it is again.

The popularity or practice of using video conferencing in certain sectors/industries does not make it secure or compliant with data protection law.

The OP has said that they are wanting to do this as in it's a 'nice to have' but that's not a good enough reason to process the personal data in this way. In the OP's case a person could have the right to object unless it is written in the contract that an employee has signed.

@Hingeandbracket

I am British for what it's worth, born and raised here, but I don't like certain aspects of British office culture.

I've been working in different types of offices, small, large, multinational, local, for two decades, and you see the same things come up again and again.

I've also worked in the US, China, Singapore and Dubai, and you don't see the same things.

Some British office workers seem to take direct, personal offence to a line manager asking them gentle, exploratory questions around an area of performance.

It's like once they're in role, that's it - they've been hired for their "skill" and nothing more should be asked of them. That they should be able to work how they want, when they want, and god forbid you ever look to work with them on personal improvement or you'll have your head bitten off.

No, I don't Skype or Facetime as I detest the intrusive nature of it.

I think some people are being deliberately obtuse about a reasonable request to occasionally be seen when at work.
I personally, am not overly fond of wearing lots of I’d and security passes. It’s part of my job so I do it. I don’t say “but I’m not really keen on my ID picture”.
If I’ve a team member who repeatedly refused to use the camera without good reason (recent nose surgery, say) then I’d be inviting them to use the office and travel in each day to avoid showing their messy sitting room or dressing gown.
Our organisation isn’t a democracy; we employ people to do the work we ask of them, in the way we ask it. Other companies have different rules but we would frown on people making a unilateral decision not to adhere to expectations.
I’m sure many don’t like our strict dress code. That doesn’t mean they can ignore it and pitch up to the office in jeans and a strappy top, a grubby slogan embellished T-shirt or neon nail polish. We are the employer so we set the rules.

It's like once they're in role, that's it - they've been hired for their "skill" and nothing more should be asked of them. That they should be able to work how they want, when they want, and god forbid you ever look to work with them on personal improvement or you'll have your head bitten off.

Like managers who have it suggested to them they might need to hone their own listening and communication skills?