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?

People should just be thankful they have the option to work from home, the entitlement on here is astounding!

Why thankful @overnightangel ? I took my current role on the understanding that I'd be able to WFH one day a week.

So for clarification, I'm aware people get lunch hours, and they can do whatever they want in that lunch hour. That's the same for WFH - I expect people to check out for a lunch hour in that time also.

Why do I have to take a whole hour? I grab a sandwich or heat up some soup, quickly eat, then use the rest of that time throughout the day to pop on some washing, move washing to the tumble dryer, empty the bins etc.

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.

I've done this, as long as I'm on the call listening and ready to respond if I need to, I can do whatever I want. Once I had an hour long meeting focussing on international taxation, I was only there just in case a question for my team arose so I did other things while still listening in. I can listen and fold washing at the same time.

Especially in the school holidays when my dd is larking about with just her pants on whilst playing the recorder in the background while I flap my hands around waving at her to be quiet.

I’d be wondering why the person caring for the child was permitting them to interrupt a working parent. It simply shouldn’t happen.

I would love to be able to work from home, I would happily connect in to the odd team video meeting. As is once DS is better I will be heading in to the wonderful world of understaffing, working way beyond your hours with no time for a wee. No prize for guessing where, before anyone says find another job then, hundreds of us are. Folding washing whilst dialled into a meeting, children about in the holidays seemingly with no one else there to keep an eye, wow.

Sometimes I listen to a call and do something else at the same time if I’m not important to the call (referring to Katherine Janeway’s example) but the ‘other thing’ I’m doing will be another piece of work, not my own stuff, which is for breaks surely? I think this is what puts employers off having people working from home. I agree with cherry pavlova - unless it’s an emergency and you have an understanding employer, you should have childcare for the holidays. I think there’s a difference if you are self employed as it’s all on you.

Going back to the point though I can see why people who don’t normally work from home might not have everything set up for it, but if my manager asked me to join in a video call I’d put the effort in to make it work - I’m surprised to read so many people making such a fuss about it! As has been mentioned here lots of times, I just have my laptop at the table with a plain wall behind me, so nothing exciting to see anyway!

Folding washing whilst dialled into a meeting, children about in the holidays seemingly with no one else there to keep an eye, wow.

I don't see the wow. I can do two things at once.

Sometimes I listen to a call and do something else at the same time if I’m not important to the call (referring to Katherine Janeway’s example) but the ‘other thing’ I’m doing will be another piece of work, not my own stuff, which is for breaks surely?

No, I really don't think so. If you're going to multitask whilst listening in to a meeting, then the other task usually needs to be something which requires minimal attention. You can't read something else whilst listening properly, but you may be able to do physical tasks that you can do on 'autopilot'. So, unless your job entails something mindless, better to occupy your hands with folding washing or whatever. More time for work (or exercise or relaxation which will tend to make you more productive) after the meeting, that's a genuine win-win.

It’s standard in our office that the camera is on - no one I know has an issue with it 🤷🏻‍♀️ - I mean I’m usually alone at home, have a desk/office set up.

I hate laptop cameras, I feel self conscious, I think they are unflattering and sometimes there's a delay on the line which is distracting. I'd really just rather talk on the phone. Also if you are working from home you may not have a separate office but be working in a kitchen or lounge so teenage DC or DH could appear in background shot which could lead to an invasion of their privacy. My 20 and 16 year old regularly come downstairs wearing short pyjamas and vest tops I wouldn't want my colleagues to see that (or the dirty dishes in the sink!)

I'd be immediately suspicious of anyone who resisted this. The assumption
Is just that.

Errol I think I agree on an ‘occasionally’ basis, not that every day your work day is structured around getting your housework done - unless you’re self employed and then it’s up to you how you spend your time. I think if you’re an employee it’s fair enough for the manager to expect you to be focussed on work things while at work - so if you occasionally fold washing I’d class that the same as someone who has cigarette breaks or occasionally prints something personal at work.

This shows how important work culture is doesn’t it! It’s got so heated here I can see why employers don’t like it and I wfh one day a week.

We usually start with cameras on for intros and then after a bit switch to voice, particularly if there are many people on the call.

The art of Skype set-dressing: how to video-call the office when in quarantine

I would absolutely hate this.

In this particular scenario, where working from home is due to the Coronavirus then there is no lawful basis of contract to process this personal data via conferencing

Where is the employer "processing" any data? Any data is being processed by the cloud video provider eg Skype or bluejeans or zoom or whoever you are using. Unless it's recorded and used later but that's a different issue entirely. I know Skype instant message chats are recorded and retained for a certain time, last employer did it for a week, but not video chats.

If you are working from home you need to be able to do your work in full including face to face communication if that would be part of your job in the office. If you can handle a face to face meeting you ought to be able to hand a video conference

The only time I would resist this would be if the call were out of hours. For example I used to have a call with West Coast US from home when ds was very small. It was necessarily after hours, they wouldn't get up early, we had to stay late. So I used to collect my son from nursery and then do the call. I often did go on mute and that is one instance where I would have preferred not to be on video. But out of hours is a bit different I think, or on a day when you are not meant to be working.

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

Is it? And is it really so unique to the UK? People are people!

Just saw this and I had to find this thread again to post it!

I would hate it. I do hate it when we do it in the office (with people in other sites etc). I don't think it helps communications etc it just doesn't work in the same way. Perfectly happy for it to be a phone call. Video makes me really uncomfortable and video in my home when it's not necessary even more so.

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

Is it? And is it really so unique to the UK? People are people!

I quite like that we have an instinctive and vigorous reaction against anything that could be the early signs of tyranny

It’s risky to be too complaint, y’know?

Hehe, ‘compliant’ obvs.

You can never be ‘too complaint’.

Be More Complaint.

[awaits scolding from GinDaddy]

Damn, it's happened! I'm going to be working from home and we've been told we have to be available for video calls!

Actually now it's happened I'm more chilled about it. I'm not customer facing so what does it matter if I'm wearing my baggy Bruce Springsteen t shirt and I've got my hair scraped back.

DH will be here as well and I've told him not to worry about me, but to carry on as normal. If the washing machine or tumble drier is going in the background it doesn't matter, work will have to accept it. Obviously if it's a scheduled call I'll plan around it but life can't revolve around work.

One good thing, I get an extra hour in bed as I don't need to go anywhere!

I'm actually more annoyed we've got to forward our direct lines to our personal mobiles! We can only turn it on and off in the office so does anyone know if blocking the office number will stop the call coming though? I'm presuming so but haven't had a chance to test it and I don't want calls after 5pm!

I've not told my workmates but I've had a procedure on my face and I’m healing and it is taking longer than expected. Hoping no one asks for camera but will pop on the slap if they do. I am guessing it might get a bit lonely in the coming weeks all this WFH.

I don't work in a UK-only culture where people's primary motivation to WFH is so they can go straight from bed to sofa and have a "home is my castle" mentality

We are the employer so we set the rules

Its the modern way of working

This thread is fascinating for the insight it gives into poor an outdated management skills.

If you can't manage a call without video you should get some proper management training.

If you can't adapt yourself with some empathy to the people with whom you work then again, get some proper management training.

"We are the employer so we set the rules" is an abication of management responsibilities and leading from within, in favour of command and control. Step up, actually manage your teams instead of seeing management as some form of control process. Endemic in the public sector IME.

At the moment many of the people working from home are not doing it by choice and have multiple reasons for being anxious - have some bloody empathy for them and let them lead on something as utterly unimportant as video choices on meetings.

In general WFH is not a "perk", it saves companies significant amounts of money. Why on earth do you think it became popular with large professional service industries based in cities?

The practical issues around large scale video conferencing are not just about local bandwidth (which can be fine for Netflix streaming and crap for video call protocols) its also about the quality of work kit, complete with all the anti virus etc to sustain sufficient laptop performance and graphics for a multiway video call.

Its also about the ability of eg Teams servers to handle the additional load. I joined two calls yesterday with clients where the teams had decided to give more video a try to see if it was useful and their servers could not sustain the load of all the video calls. This are large multinational, corporates, not corner shops.

Regarding data protection - there isn't an issue in general with GDPR. There is nothing to stop anyone screenshotting a background or a face (not all software allows background blurring) but its not something which I lie awake about.

I think if you're told it's a video call, then it's a video call. It's not unreasonable in any circumstance for you to expect to have to be suitably dressed for work, and it really does make a huge difference to the quality of the conversation. I wouldn't be giving people the choice to opt out on this.

and it really does make a huge difference to the quality of the conversation.

It really doesn’t. It is a distraction.