161–170 of 284 posts
I turn my camera on for _every_ meeting. Not for me, but for my coworkers, and especially the PHBs that maybe would prefer remote-work to be over.
I've given presentations to entire grids of black boxes, and it's shockingly disheartening.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you extrapolate that then you have a bunch of people all staring at a video of themselves for the duration of the meeting. No one is looking at you, but you feel on display and mentally fatigue yourself for nothing.
I also keep an eye on my self view, but not continuously throughout the entire call. I'll still pay attention to the person speaking and scan the rest of the cams like I would if I were in a conference room. Doesn't need to be a constant thing, but more like glancing in the rear view mirror while driving. It's there when you need it, also there when you just want to check, but not going to keep you from the task at h…
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rearview-handy-mirror-camera/i...
It’s interesting how people here are adamant that camera usage [all the time] is important or necessary. It isn’t. It's an opinion, and in my opinion, a bad one that isn't justified by anything. At my company we only use them if necessary, and I’ve been with them for over 3 years working remotely. We get work done quite well. edit: update wording for clarity
Your anecdote doesn’t seem to convey that camera usage is not important, but it does show that it’s not necessary. It’s possible, I’d guess likely, that you’ve been able to get work done well in spite of no cameras. Of course, I doubt anyone would do an experiment to see if your statement is true or not. I just thought that your statement seemed so absolute but the evidence you present isn’t.
We're not getting work done "in spite of" no cameras. We're getting work done, period, and don't have to deal with the fatigue of having a webcam on all the time.
It’s interesting how people here are adamant that camera usage [all the time] is important or necessary. It isn’t. It's an opinion, and in my opinion, a bad one that isn't justified by anything. At my company we only use them if necessary, and I’ve been with them for over 3 years working remotely. We get work done quite well. edit: update wording for clarity
So they aren’t necessary, except when they are?
> following a day of virtual meetings I've done full days of real meetings. Those were exhausting and very draining. I'm surprised that anybody would expect anything different from virtual meetings. I have noticed that it's harder to feel people as fully human when they're little 2D movies. Even moreso when they're disembodied voices. It's less so when I've met the people IRL. I'm guessing I can then link their image…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Based on a discussion here several months ago, it seems to vary by workplace. Some companies rarely use cameras, some use them all the time. Very grateful I work for the former.
The ability to have someone instantly available, without requiring 100% of their attention, is useful. I have no problem with some people multitasking in meetings, and I don't judge people if they say "sorry, I wasn't paying attention, can you repeat that". I've learned to ask better questions that people can answer even if they weren't paying attention.
I totally understand drifting off in meetings especially virtual ones.
It’s interesting how people here are adamant that camera usage [all the time] is important or necessary. It isn’t. It's an opinion, and in my opinion, a bad one that isn't justified by anything. At my company we only use them if necessary, and I’ve been with them for over 3 years working remotely. We get work done quite well. edit: update wording for clarity
You said you don’t believe cameras are necessary, but that at your company you use them ‘if necessary’. So they aren’t necessary, except when they are?
Webcams do have uses but they're not necessary nearly most of the time. The few exceptions we've had are for pointing a webcam at a whiteboard and for presenting a meeting to some higherups in the airforce.
> following a day of virtual meetings I've done full days of real meetings. Those were exhausting and very draining. I'm surprised that anybody would expect anything different from virtual meetings. I have noticed that it's harder to feel people as fully human when they're little 2D movies. Even moreso when they're disembodied voices. It's less so when I've met the people IRL. I'm guessing I can then link their image…
I feel this is a blessing in most cases.
Remembering in-person meetings, half of the “participation” was asking to get back one slide before to check a point that went too fast, questions on points that are dealt with two slides further, people getting asked questions as a punishment for being visibly bored to death, and facts that could be checked by a 10s document search but would seem rude to be looking for right now.
Forcing people to share their documents, everyone free to get back and forth in the slides on their side, and just able to cut the camera/mic and look for whatever they feel they need to look for, do whatever they need to do just helps tremendously to cut down on unneeded back and forth, and improves a lot on efficiency.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The perceived the need to keep the camera off during a meeting is a good indication there is something wrong with the meeting, not that it's a good thing to keep the camera off. We had some recurring meetings where people consistently didn't show up. The managers first impulse was to make the meeting mandatory. But the first thought should be: why are people not showing up? Engineers hate being unproductive, it shoul…
> Turning the camera off is just a socially acceptable way of not showing up. Why do you think that someone with a camera off is not present? How can you honestly equate camera-off with absence? > There are exceptions of course imo it's the opposite. Rarely to never does it matter if you see my face in a meeting. It's an exceedingly rare exception that you should need to as a business requirement. Have you considered…
I never said this.
> Furthermore - even if you were right, I would say it's a good thing that busy people have a socially graceful way to opt out of the organisational mistakes of others.
Maybe, if you have a company culture where such mistakes cannot be addressed frankly, then perhaps. The lack of facial expressions and other non-verbal cues will take away much of the signals that are available to the organizer however. Which in turn can make regular nonsense meetings last longer than they should.
In my experience quite a lot of these regular meetings are scheduled as a knee-jerk reaction of management to solve problems they don't actually understand. This is great source of unproductive meetings, bowing out 'gracefully' by turning off your camera and attention will not make things better. I'm used to being able to express my concerns openly though, without holding back, so maybe I'm biased.