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?

Oh god no I could not think of anything worse. Conference calls are tedious at best. I spend most of mine on mute doing other work at the same time.
Having to look presentable when wfh, making sure the camera is at the right angle so I’m not showing all of my chins or an upward view of my nostrils, making sure I convey the right body language and facial expressions.

No, I wouldn't be comfortable with this at all.

I'm more than capable of working without looking presentable. I'm just as switched on in my pyjamas as I am in a suit.

I video call every day at work (from home). I think it's actually in our contracts that we must be dressed/presentable during working hours and available to call in - which seems reasonable to me.

It is really interesting to hear different perspectives, thank you.

I would be pissed. But only for the fact wfh days I generally sit on couch in my scruffy jammies, hair scraped up, no make up and I generally resemble a crack addict.

I would not want to impose that image on my work colleagues nor would I want to make myself presentable.

No way. Utterly intrusive. My camera is taped over. I do not allow any image of me to be placed on digital media of any sort.

I'd hate this. I do lots of conference calls but not from home, I do them at work with other linked organisations. How can I roll my eyes, pull faces or discreetly talk to a colleague in the room with me (as we have calls on mute unless we're talking)? If you heard these calls you'd understand - always at least one person who hasn't properly read the info and ask ridiculous questions.

I wfh and Zoom meetings are always done with the camera on. A call on my phone even with three on the call - no camera. I’d expect team meetings if on Zoom to be done with camera on and to flick between peoples screens so would dress / shut tabs on my computer accordingly.

I work from home one day a week and never have it on. Even at work when we do conference calls, most people’s cameras are off. I’ll be on self-quarantine for the next 14 days, so may turn it on when I have my team catch up (chin wag) on Monday

I'm not convinced the view up peoples' nostrils supplied by most laptops is particularly helpful. The performance problems with Teams even on good broadband on most corporate laptops can be woeful and cause distracting distortion/lag. There is also the issue of privacy - not everyone wants their home on display and if they are not even WFH by choice its not reasonable to demand this.

I always give people the choice. For a 1-2-1 I recommend it to people, for some teams I recommend it and lead by example, but I only require it of them for formal interviews. In the current circumstances people are stressed enough about the situation without adding more discomfort simply because it suits me.

We do this routinely at work and most people are fine with it. People tend to have their desks close to a wall or window, only the people with the tidiest houses seem to have a view into a room! Many people are sitting right in front of a wall with a picture on, it looks nice but gives nothing away.

I agree with you OP that it does help you feel that you know people better than if you never see them. Some of us do have to practice looking alert and perky though It takes some getting used to but it's not a big deal after that. I assume you have keyboard tracking anyway, it's not an additional way to track people, they would likely be already tracked if they are mainly home workers.

I actually think it depends on context. Freelancer or employee with no set hours I would think different to corporate job wfh where I would expect to be presentable and available specific hours. I’ve done both.

I find it much better to connect with people with video.

It's a work conference call or meeting so it's a perfectly reasonable request. You may be working from home but you're still working. I'd think it's a bit precious to say no.

I don't think it's unreasonable, it sounds like it would just be for your team meetings, presumably you have all seen eachother before, and if you're working even from home get dressed and brush your hair . I used to hate my manager working from home because it would be impossible to contact her, we requested a morning catch up but oh no I'll be in my jammies, eurgh.

No way. I hate it. Everyone always looks awkward anyway. it's no way like having a face to face meeting, Skype with a shared presentation is fine.

Mine is taped over too, plus it's to the side of me as I hook up to a big screen. So it'd just be looking at the blank wall behind me anyway!

When I work from home I use my son's gaming computer which is blindingly fast, but it is a desktop and has no web cam.

That's a very intrusive thing to stipulate and I usually have video active when I do team calls.

I can think of a million reasons why , some of which have been stated in the thread (not having to be business presentable is one of the upsides of home working; being embarrassed or wanting privacy about home etc).

In my case, I sometimes have to shut down video chat for 2 main reasons:

1. you can't get rid of the broadcast little image of yourself, massively distracting tbh and I've often lost my train of thought when seeing others of myself, audio simply allows me to focus in a way I know not everyone else understands..

2. the biggest reason.. bandwidth!! If I have video on large audience calls it crashes my and a lot of people's internet and not everyone (I.e. mostly only vvvvvvv senior staff) is on a decent work connect... Everyone else like me is using their domestic home internet which isn't always up to the job... I don't know of anyone in my grade or even anyone remotely above me who has a work connect so everyone is really using their personal internet provider.. it's extremely frustrating to be doing presentations then having a lot of delays and crap audio because the stupid video thing is hogging the internet..

I usually turn off video in advance if I'm a presenter for that reason alone!

I do get what you are trying to achieve, but I am very very self conscious and having a camera that close to my face is really intimidating for me. I would start to dread conference calls and don't think I would focus as much. I also hate facetime etc. Just my opinion and personal preference and I don't actually think you are being unreasonable maybe I am just over self conscious.

... and i will continue to switch it off to keep a stable internet connection until work are paying for my home internet access.

Which will be never!

It's not unreasonable. You lose plenty of nuance on calls since a lot of communication isn't verbal. Adding in video can help communication. It does mean you lose a bit of a perk of working from home - being able to slob - and that's probably more a cost on women than men given our culture. So I understand why some people would dislike it. Maybe have a "dress down" day or two each week when video won't be expected.

even at work I log in to meetings in a way that people only see a photo of me rather than video. Would find it intrusive at home - intrusive enough that I may have to work from home rather than be provided with office space.
My cat will probably jump on the laptop and some point and put laptop in to flight mode - she's v good at that.

@bbcessex - people on your team have told you they don’t want this, the vast majority here find it unpopular and you’re going ahead anyway? If so, you may want to rethink how you manage. I’d be paying attention to my team.

In my work we do alot of remote working and do alot of conference calls. Wouldn't bother me using video as i too prefer to look at people I am speaking to but usually my calls are with lots of people so dont need to see them. If it is easy for your team to do video calls then fair enough...