To think mandatory video calls is a ridiculous request?

[Lizzie523]

After nearly a year of working from home our manager has requested we all turn our cameras on for every daily team meeting (which is every day).

I can't say what my colleagues reasons are for turning theirs off some days, but I tend to do it on days my mental health isnt great or I've had a terribly sleepless night due to the stress of this whole situation. Probably once or twice a week. They are arguing we should appear like we were in the office - but in the office we got on with our work and were not having a daily meeting or sitting in front of all our co workers faces.

The meetings are usually pointless check ins where no one has a thing to say. It is always the same extroverts talking about personal stuff. The fact the videos on is now mandatory because they say so has annoyed me quite a bit. AIBU?

I think having cameras on is just conducive to better communication. Interaction is important, especially right now, when we don't see much of each other.

It's also off-putting if there are several people with the camera on and several blank squares. It feels much more like a group if everyone just has the camera on.

Lots of people are self-conscious about it which is understandable (sounds like that is the root concern of yours OP), but I feel like adult professionals should be able to get over this and see it for what it is - a communciation tool.

No one is judging how you look (or they shouldn't be), whether you are wearing make up etc. But just show up and communicate with your colleagues!

My head of department will randomly video call me because he needs an answer on something there and then, he would have previously popped up at my desk. I am a huge introvert but have learnt to just deal with it as if we were in the office. He has now got used to me with messy hair and no make up looking shattered!

@NoseinBook3

I think it’s intrusive. It’s my house. Other people don’t have the right to visit my house without being invited.

You can use a background to filter out your house - no one has to see it. It's very simple on Zoom.

I agree it’s annoying and controlling. My line manager does the same and I just ignore the request.

I often don’t put my cam on for a quick trans call but in a proper meeting I always do

Not in my tram but a colleagues im amused with the regular excuses one girl has not to put cam on, this week is conjunctivitis but she has actually said some days “I’m not cam ready” “I’ve no make up on”, she should still be getting ready for work like she would in the office. One day she video called my friend straight after her team meeting with no cam and she had her pjs on. Didn’t want her manager to see
Maybe you have someone taking the mick in your team?

If they are paying you , switch it on or find another job.

Videoconferencing was the norm in my last work place way before lockdown. Even when I was in the office as we worked globally so couldn't meet physically. The only valid reason for turning off video is if you are struggling with bandwidth. Or if there is some sort of child protection issue if eg a looked after child might wander into the room but not relevant to most people). Your co-workers don't get the opportunity to look round your house - at most they see a wall, and if you don't have a wall you're prepared to share then use a wallpaper as others have said. Many companies will have to make some serious resource decisions over the next little while, refusing to work in the way you have been asked to might not be the smartest move.

I am struck by the comment that asking for cameras on being bad management.

Human connections have been lost during this pandemic. We are really lucky to have video conferencing. We can see each other regularly, check in, chat. It’s not the same as being in the office but if helps.

I work with some people who have poor broadband connections, so sometimes their cameras are off. They find it frustrating and we find it frustrating. It’s easy to forget about people whose screens are blank.

It’s not bad management to want to see your colleagues.

Open up a discussion, don’t be hostile or negative. Offer a compromise.

Those with cameras, are they an intrinsic part of your computer, or are they a webcam add-on? There are no cameras installed on the equipment provided by the large company I work for, so all meetings are without video.

Not unreasonable it's a team meeting . Speaking from experience its very hard chairing a meeting to a screen of initials.
You have to remebemer it"s not all about you and if you don't want to do it take unpaid leave till this is over.

I am struck by the comment that asking for cameras on being bad management.

I think it can be bad management, it can be good management. Lots of both types of manager!

A lot of managers are very controlling.

I have my camera on for team meetings where I contribute but always off for training so I can focus on the audio and typing notes. Why would anyone need to see my ear as I look at the other screen to type? But some managers would insist on cameras on (we have one like that, but they have been hampered by organisational policy, thank goodness!).

Agree with @wildraisins above and can't understand the difference between being seen on camera and being seen at work. Our organisation has numerous online meetings and no-one joins without video.

Just put the background filter on or angle the camera to a blank wall and sit further away or in poor light if you're that self-conscious.

You’re an adult, suck it up. I get so annoyed when people don’t turn on their camera. I don’t like it but I do it out of courtesy, and it upsets me that others don’t show it back.

And please don’t use MH as an excuse for bloody everything!

It’s like as soon as something tricky comes along people say ‘oh I can’t possibly do it because of my MH’. Life is hard.

No scrap that being on a camera is not bloody hard!

Thankfully my work doesn't enforce this and we pretty much all have our cameras off on our daily meeting and keep mics muted too. It's a waste of bandwidth to have everyone's camera on - there are some people in our team who struggle with poor broadband connections so it makes sense to do that. For smaller more focused meetings we turn them on. No-one complains and it's not an issue. It would be more distracting to have them on right now with kids roaming about etc!

@OhDear2200

You’re an adult, suck it up. I get so annoyed when people don’t turn on their camera. I don’t like it but I do it out of courtesy, and it upsets me that others don’t show it back.

This is what I meant up thread about why some people get so riled - people who force themselves to do things often also try to force others to do things.

Maybe you could join the camera-off dark side @OhDear2200, you might enjoy it

@NoseinBook3

I think it’s intrusive. It’s my house. Other people don’t have the right to visit my house without being invited.

I find it intrusive too. Loathe it.

Are people really doing their whole routine before they go to work? It's one of the very few perks that you don't have to do all the bullshit before heading out the door. Comfy pants, messy bun and no make up for the win 😁

Daisy- all our staff have a staff laptop with webcam.

OP- I don’t think it’s unreasonable. I work in a school with just over 100 staff. Full staff meetings and briefings are generally cameras off except for the presenter(s) but for all team meetings or meetings of less than about 30 people then people have their cameras on or explain why they can’t. It isn’t a “rule” but seems to have become an unspoken etiquette. It’s easier to communicate with them on and pick up non-verbal cues. We don’t make the kids turn them on for lessons but for meetings with my student leadership group (a bit like head girl/boy and senior prefect team) I ask for cameras on. I think it’s come to be seen as a professional courtesy.

Thankfully its not enforcered at my workplace.

When we were in the office i moved alot more, going from meeting room to meeting room. Now I don't, I use meetings to get up and stretch, walk on the spot etc. Noome needs to see me doing that

@cheeseisthebest

Bloody hell. Life's shit enough without having to have your camera on every day for a pointless daily team meeting.

THIS. Client meetings obviously, but for largely irrelevant "team meetings" which wouldn't be happening in normal times? Why? People are not in their offices now, working from/at home means a whole different set of circumstances, unless you live on your own with no family responsibilities to juggle with.

It's not controlling! It's so you can communicate better with your team, function better. You need as many types of connection as you can get if you're not actually face to face.

I need to see my staff - it's nothing about controlling their movements, or distrusting them.

@Lizzie523

I quite agree with you *@Ciaobaby92*. Why give people a hard time for a small thing when we are all working hard?

I also have endometriosis and I simply wont turn my camera on on bad days when I'm on the couch face contorted with pain!

But would you be in her office in a day like that?

I use the touch up my appearance setting on zoom. Makes it more bearable

Comfy pants, messy bun and no make up for the win this was pretty common in the office for us so I dread to think what some are wearing now

I have indeed invested in elasticated trousers myself.

I'd be more complaining about a pointless meeting where nothing gets done. Happens all the time in every workplace and its so bloody frustrating. Yes I'm trying to do my job and get some work done, so let's have a meeting to talk, about it, waste my time for an hour when I could have been doing the work, just to talk about it and discuss other nonsense. That's a brilliant plan.

Or colleagues who for every little message HAVE to phone you because 'typing takes too long' and then spend the time moaning about how busy they are, talking about other crap and after half an hour we might finally get round to what I asked. Typing it would have take you a minute! And you're clearly not that fucking busy if you can waste half an hour whining you pillock.

Sorry bit of a rant there.