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The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

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Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#41

Post by hnzix »

matsemann wrote: post #29
boglurker wrote: post #8

I haven't turned my camera on in meetings for over 8 months, I don't think anyone really cares that much, and I find some people like it because they feel less pressure to keep their own cameras on as a result. That's been my experience at least, I'm sure some people have bosses that require it for whatever reason which might make that not an option for everyone.

They care, they just don't want to pick a fight. They might judge you and believe the reason you're not on camera is because you're busy doing something else.

These are probably the same people who care if I leave the office on time instead of staying late every night. I don't care to please these people.

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#43

Post by jacobmischka »

matsemann wrote: post #27

To make a different point than all the camera naysayers so far: I I'd be WFH for two years during covid, and everyone had their cameras off, I'd go crazy. Not seeing a face for months, being stressed about the other party in a meeting not even paying attention, just speaking into a void etc.

It's extremely rude in my opinion when people simply don't turn their cameras on in virtual meetings. Unfortunately, no one at my workplace except me does.

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#44

Post by kodah »

lucumo wrote: post #25

> 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…

Some context: I'm a lead engineer on a team with six products.

I keep my camera off in meetings. I'm in far more meetings than I can possibly be productive in. I'm also usually not the active speaker in meetings. Why stare into a camera when what my yearly bonuses are calculated on is work/team output? I've found most meetings I get into are either:

- Developers who can't figure something out from documentation and are too impatient (or sometimes critical) to be helped over Slack.

- Executives who would rather speak than send an email or create a Slack thread.

It's not useful for me to pay attention the whole time when I'm also responsible for delivering code and 50-75% of my day is meetings.

The exceptions I have for this are:

- 1:1's

- Interviews

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#45

Post by fegu »

newshorts wrote: post #19

Have they also considered the fact that I’m literally hopping from one meeting to the next with zero minutes of downtime? I mean when I was in the office we at least had to walk to a new room, now I’m always a few minutes late to the next meeting and literally just signed out of the previous one. I used to also take a lunch break, now I eat at my desk during meetings.

We always schedule meetings to end at 5 minutes to the hour, so people can get time to fetch another coffee etc.

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#46

Post by MisterBastahrd »

I haven't found camera usage in meetings to be useful for anything other than raising the stress level of the participants. One of the benefits of working from home is not having to be dressed up for work when you aren't doing any client-facing activities.

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#47

Post by piva00 »

jacobmischka wrote: post #43
matsemann wrote: post #27

To make a different point than all the camera naysayers so far: I I'd be WFH for two years during covid, and everyone had their cameras off, I'd go crazy. Not seeing a face for months, being stressed about the other party in a meeting not even paying attention, just speaking into a void etc.

It's extremely rude in my opinion when people simply don't turn their cameras on in virtual meetings. Unfortunately, no one at my workplace except me does.

Rude? Have you considered the other side? I'm extremely fatigued by having the camera on, I feel surveilled and every movement I do in front of it is calculated by my unconscious mind. It takes a real toll on my productivity having to have the camera on for a string of meetings.

I feel it's extremely rude to dismiss others' experiences with the damn camera on for a virtual meeting. What is up that you need someone else to have a camera pointing to their face that you can't have with their voices? For most meetings that I don't require my computer I'll even go for a short walk around the house, while bouncing ideas, raising questions and so on. I feel much more productive in the meetings I'm able to disengage from my computer and surroundings and immerse on the conversation without having to care about a camera showing my face.

Being very honest, being forced to turn my camera on is a major red flag, the fatigue is real and consumed me after a year on this, since last December I've been turning my camera off and it's been incredibly productive.

Judge as much as you want but it seems you have no empathy, worse than that, you want to force your ways of working unto others without even considering others' struggles with it.

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#48

Post by piva00 »

matsemann wrote: post #29
boglurker wrote: post #8

I haven't turned my camera on in meetings for over 8 months, I don't think anyone really cares that much, and I find some people like it because they feel less pressure to keep their own cameras on as a result. That's been my experience at least, I'm sure some people have bosses that require it for whatever reason which might make that not an option for everyone.

They care, they just don't want to pick a fight. They might judge you and believe the reason you're not on camera is because you're busy doing something else.

As if no one does the same on in-person meetings. Bringing their computers to the meeting, leaving them open and replying messages here and there.

If they believe that it's on their side, so the reason to keep my camera on is to "show" that I've been paying attention? I work with a bunch of people who leave their camera on and are completely inattentive for parts of meetings, doing something else while looking at the computer. How is that different?

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#49

Post by TrianguloY »

For me, camera off if possible, but don't mind turning it on if required. I also don't care if the other users have, and usually I prefer them off, but strangely I like it more when they have a profile picture, either a real life foto, an avatar or even an abstract drawing, something that allows me to "map" the sound to something while hearing it.

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#50

Post by INTPenis »

One advantage to virtual meetings is that we're no longer suffering the portal effect when we exit the conference room.

I had one particularly bad manager who treated meetings like coffee brakes, anything we said or did was forgotten as soon as he stepped out of the room. There has been research done on this portal effect and how it makes us forget our current task.

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