Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

doi.apa.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 284 posts

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#51

Post by babyshake »

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.

It may depend on the context. In a small or one on one meeting, yes it is usually rude. In a meeting with more than 5-10 people where I'm not expected to be a very active participant? I think it's fine. I also expect if someone would like the camera to be on at these meetings they would be able to tell me that and I'd usually be happy to do so if requested.

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#52

Post by random_kris »

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.

Why rude? Organizer of the meeting should either tell participants to use camera or whichever they prefer. And chosing not to turn it on is far from rude

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#53

Post by sz4kerto »

kodah wrote: post #44
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 a…

> I'm in far more meetings than I can possibly be productive in.

> I'm also responsible for delivering code and 50-75% of my day is meetings.

There's an organisational issue here.

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#54

Post by random_kris »

piva00 wrote: post #47
jacobmischka wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 el…

Coudlnt say it better

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#55

Post by raz32dust »

In my experience, meetings definitely feel more productive when at least the key participants have cameras on. So I would not advocate for a "camera off" culture. Instead, something that helps me and might help others - When I am not speaking, I keep my camera on, but I don't keep the camera view myself - i.e, I don't watch myself or others. Instead, I switch to the content being shared/presented, if any. This helps me a lot, as I think a lot of the anxiety comes from having to watch myself, which is always uncomfortable and not something that we are used to.

Secondly, I think virtual meetings are fatiguing also because of the constant staring at the screen. In in-person meetings, you spend a lot of time not looking at a screen, whereas you are constantly staring at a screen in a virtual meeting. Something that helps me is to take some of the meetings like 1:1s while walking with only audio.

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#56

Post by INTPenis »

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.

Strangely this is perfectly fine to do with my employer, but I have a weekly meeting with some external developers and they immediately comment on my avatar or that I'm missing, while they all have their cameras on.

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#57

Post by [deleted] »

kodah wrote: post #44
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 a…

[deleted]

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#58

Post by pyrale »

kodah wrote: post #44
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 a…

> and are too impatient to be helped over Slack.

Slack is not a panacea. Sometimes, you need to share a screen and have a fluid discussion, which Slack does not provide.

All-slack communication is definitely not great. It is ok for some communications that can be asynchronous and don't need a support, but that's definitely a small subset of the work communications needed for an engineering context.

Re: The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings

#59

Post by DharmaPolice »

I personally find the most productive meetings are where there is some kind of screen sharing on a document/something else. It gives something to focus on (so you're not tempted to read emails/do other things) and you don't have the annoyance/distraction of cameras (or they're only a small part of your screen).

It's got better now days but at the start of the pandemic every other video call with over n people would have interruptions/digressions when someone's dog/cat/kid walked into the background of someone's video.

Post reply on HN