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?

I video call on weekly basis for work. Working for a global company with a lot of homeworkers it is the norm.

A lot of the video apps like teams and Skype give you the option to blur your background if you want to.

@StCharlotte yes! I think people who work occasionally from home might wear pajamas or not bother to do their hair but those who do it full time treat it no differently from going to an office block. I once read on here someone who said “I work from home in my dressing gown on the sofa”. I tried to pictured myself with my computer, two monitors and massive phone that does everything except wash the dishes perched on the sofa. I use a Varidesk - no way that would work on a sofa.

I think it's unreasonable to expect employees to allow you to see into their homes. That's especially the case given it's not 'normal' home working but an emergency measure. Some of your staff may not have the ideal set up for home working - be that wifi issues or childcare problems should schools close. Why make their lives more difficult at an already trying time? If video is genuinely useful then many may choose to use it, but I don't think you should insist on it.

You communicate more effectively with people you can see. You're at work so you shouldn't be slobbing around in pyjamas anyway and if you regularly work from home you should be properly set up to do so. If your laptop is too low put it on a stand and use a keyboard. I'm working from home permanently until the current crisis is over and I've sorted my home office accordingly, including a light so that I am comfortable with my appearance on video. To be honest some of these posts show why employers can be reluctant to allow working from home as it's obvious a significant number of people take the piss.

If you’re managing a meeting you need to be able to read the room, and when people are on the phone you miss all the body language

You use vocal indicators instead. It can be easier to assess the accuracy of what someone is saying without the distraction of visual ticks.

How do you think people used to "contnect" when they only had telephones?

They didn't work from home for starters!

Of course we did. We worked from home before home broadband and even before most people had dial up!

I don't like it at home but I think it should be used more inter-office eg so you can have a virtual meeting between two teams to save travel.
But not at home. My husband WFH one day a week in the spare room, we have to move all the washing around so my pants aren't in view behind him! He often forgets!
If I WFH I don't bother with make up etc and generally start work earlier, I'd lose that stress free element of getting ready in the morning.
Plus as others have said it's your home. I don't want all and sundry seeing my home!

Nope. I don’t like videoconferencing when I’m in the office and dressed to see people. When I wfh I wear gym gear and no makeup. I would consider it micromanaging and controlling if anyone suggested this meant I was working less effectively. Also I don’t want people I work with to see inside my home. Not because it’s untidy or shabby, but because it’s private from them. I prefer to keep pretty firm boundaries in place- colleagues are colleagues, not friends, and I’d consider it an unacceptable invasion of my privacy if anyone tried to overstep those boundaries.

Just checking to make sure everyone knows you can obscure your background on typical conferencing apps so there's no need to show anymore of your home surroundings than you'd like.

(I can see how having pants on display could be slightly off putting!)

I have thus far refused to turn my camera
On and will only do so if it becomes absolutely mandatory.

1. My home office is also my craft room. My craft projects are often exploded all over the room. Only my professional workspace is kept cleared. I don’t want to show the room to my colleagues.
2. I find being on screen very distracting. Instead of worrying about what I am saying or listening to someone else, I am worrying about my appearance.
3. My laptop is not usually open. I have it hooked up to a docking station. Pulling it out to access the camera makes it harder for me to work and means my desktop is no longer ergonomically adjusted properly. In my meetings, I frequently have to do some calculations or look something up as we speak, so computer access is important.

If you can manage to be dressed appropriately for work when you gage to travel there how is it harder to do from home?
I've been mainly home based for years and you can see fuck all of my house from my laptop camera.
I have it covered when not in use but video calls are so much better than audio only when you're not in touch with people every day.

I have one relatively local contract where I see each participant in person at least once a month. When I chair the monthly call where we all come together on a certain project we can do it well by phone as I know them and their voices.
Work that's all on line, where you don't know each other so well, is much easier by video call.
I can't see why this is such an imposition compared with going into an office! You just need to learn how to do it. It's 20th century tech after all and we are two decades into the 21st ...

I have a closed laptop on a docking station Purpleartichoke.We just have a separate camera you can direct away from whichever bit you don’t want to be seen.

If you were having meetings at the office you’d be able to see their faces so I don’t see how it should be different when you’re working from home. WFH is not an excuse to sit around in your pyjamas scratching your bum. If you are having meetings it’s not going to kill you to brush your hair and put a clean top on. It still less effort than going into work.

I'd hate this. I find it a lot harder to concentrate on video calls because I keep wondering what my face looks like instead of focusing on what other people are saying. This is not because I'm vain, but because I look shit on camera to the point where it affects my self-esteem (so it's not the same as talking to people in the office, where there isn't a camera magnifying one's every defect).

Additionally, some people might have limited workspace available at home and it might be in a cluttered or untidy part of the house that they wouldn't necessarily want colleagues to see.

You're at work so you shouldn't be slobbing around in pyjamas anyway ... To be honest some of these posts show why employers can be reluctant to allow working from home as it's obvious a significant number of people take the piss.

Not necessarily. Most of the time if I'm not in the office, I'm wearing my comfy indoor clothes - leggings and a jumper or something. I work from the sofa (laptop stand, USB mouse). Sometimes if I'm doing a really tedious task, I'll have the TV on in the background as well!

I work hard, I meet all my deadlines, and my manager is really happy with my performance; I don't feel like I'm taking the piss at all.

No way. I work from home. DH shares my office nowadays.

I've worked from home for well over 20 years, quite a lot of colleagues dial in from all over the place, no one has ever even vaguely suggested we need to look at each other. In the early days around 1990 it wouldn't have been possible, I had a dial up modem to pick up email a couple of times a day. Then I had various desktop machines, it's only the last 3 years or so my PC had had a camera. I turned it off and it's got a bulldog clip over it. And it's in the corner behind my pair of big monitors...

Skype is great but we need our screens to look at documents, code, papers etc - so much more useful than watching each other.

If someone decided I had to have my camera on, I think I'd put the laptop on the floor by the dog's bed in the office.

I’m a homeworker and have been for 14 years. We use zoom and teams, it’s great not to hold a phone or wear headphones. Sometimes we do video, sometimes not, depending on the circumstance. I quite like it when as a team, we occasionally leave it running whilst working independently - a true virtual office! You can blur your background or use a video or photo. I think with Coronavirus everyone who can do, should work from home.

"Company policy for home workers is that you work in a dedicated office in your home. "

Do they supply this dedicated office or is home working only available for high earners?
Coronavirus measures might mean that all sorts of people might have to work from home who can't afford such a luxury. I'm worrying about how I'm going to pay my heating bill if I'm home 24/7.

Don’t worry too much, summer’s coming. It’s nice to work from home; you support your local economy at lunchtimes, you save the planet from more pollution and you get back (in my case) 3hrs of your day from time spent commuting.

I can't see the problem. Video calls are scheduled, so you have time to move and set your laptop (portable) up so that you are sitting in front of a wall or window. You can take a couple of minutes to get the angle flattering - looking up to the camera is more flattering.

For me though, I use my laptop as a notepad and actually write on it (not type) to take notes. Not sure how that would work with my camera. It would definitely be a terrible angle

I'm optimistic that we'll get to work from home soon. Work has already put a stop to all travel (domestic and international) unless absolutely necessary. I'll get so much work done if I'm at home.

I wouldn’t want to use video conferencing, it would make me self conscious, plus you’d probably get a view of my cat’s arse as the cat like to help me to type! 🤣😂🤣😂

We work heavily on video conferencing so we are used to it and most of us keep our cameras on , but in fairness we have to with learners and clients . If it's just the team we might switch it off. Several people do if it's in team one on one. I might if it's a team one because I vape and if it's a long one I prefer people dont see me do it , seems unprofessional, another is the same as he smokes. Neither of us would do it with outsiders but it's fine with just the team.

However we regularly attend training and standardizing and its expected cameras on as like with any training session you need to know people are engaged and taking it in.

To be fair we use it so heavily everyone has a deliberately set up spot with appropriate background in their house (because our electronic backgrounds are rubbish) , usually next to a nice jacket they can put on quickly to hide the fact they are in pyjamas.

My problem is ddog has figured this spot out and often tries to come and see the peoples who live in the black box (despite any other time rarely getting off her furry behind , hears my bosses voice of course? And she is straight over to say hello.....)

Depends on the broadband speed, it can lead to delays which are distracting.

This, really irritating.

When I'm WFH, my laptop is in the docking station so that I can use a better (ergonomic) keyboard and a much bigger screen.
When it's docked, the camera isn't operational.
And that's how I like it !

nope ours are taped up at home and remember in a house then a computer is often up against a wall so a camera would then show the entire room behind them. that is people's private life

If people are working from home in suddenly bigger numbers we might well find that we need to stick to audio as the broadband network is under stress outside cities.
I don't like video on conference calls. My laptop camera has electrical tape on it. I wfh a lot, dressed and in the study. I do plenty of conference calls remotely.