Do you turn your camera on during Teams/Zoom meetings?
 

Is it something that makes you feel embarrassed/self-conscious or does it feel like a natural and an essential part of official virtual communication to you?

No because I’m usually having a wank if not presenting

a what meeting?

Have you not heard of Zoom?

I don't work in an environment where teams meetings are a thing but I would have the camera off if I did

no

I dont like it. I've even had arguments over it with a team member who thinks he can order everyone to switch their camera on.

I just dont particularly like looking at myself. :laugh: No narcissism here. I also dont need to see other peoples faces cuz I can remember what they look like. :shrug:

In my old team, before the promotion, we had a manger who insisted on all cameras being on. Awful manager. We called her the female David Brent behind her back.

She insisted on them being on cuz she didnt think we were on the call. Awful dreadful manager.

:laugh:

I’m not even getting involved. Just … taking his word for it.

:laugh::laugh:

i never appear on camera. I even have privacy covers, back and front on my phone, just to be sure no-one hacks it :laugh:

Dont do Teams any more thankfully but when i did our manager would ask us to turn on our cameras...I used to say mine had gone off and wouldnt turn back on.... awful

I do a lot of interviews via Teams so have to have camera on.....I don't like it though and thankfully now we do more face to face.

We're a lovey-dovey-friendly-fluffy company and everyone is generally camera on by default. There's no rule that it has to be, just generally people actually like seeing each other. We actually have a purely social 20 mins at 11am and 3pm where people go on just for coffee and chat :joker:.

I found it awkward at first but you get used to it :shrug:. We've been a heavily-online mixed office/remote company since ye olde Covid.

I'll take calls looking like I've clearly just rolled out of bed these days. No one is bovvered. But again, it's a very small (about 20 people) and close-knit company where everyone knows each other well, I probably wouldn't like it if it was "official calls" in a larger company.

For Zoom and Teams, I've got OBS set as a possible input, and I have a long loop of me sitting there, breathing, blinking, fidgeting etc for when I'm not actually directly participating :joker: it's a bit creepy out of context, but as one of many on a screen it doesn't really stand out.

I'd probably forget to turn it off and start speaking and everyone would be like wtf is happening :joker:.

Surely no one actually uses Zoom any more though? I thought it was a bit of a covid-times fad. Most people just use **** like FaceTime and WhatsApp for personal calls and Teams for work stuff these days surely.

At the start of Covid my workplace used Zoom and Slack. Feels like a lifetime ago.

...though somehow Teams still manages to be utter trash, 3 years down the line...

AND they're removing the Wiki function which was one of the most useful functions??

we are still a slack company. It has so many useful integrations that it would take a lot to move away from it now

Microsoft Teams is a bit of an awkward manoeuvre sometimes (it just feels clunky and niche). Me, I’m okay with Zoom.

I don't really get the fear of cameras that so many people have. We never use ours which is kinda led by my manager because he hates it but even in other meetings there seems to be some sort of existential dread associated with having your face in a little box on the screen. I quite like seeing everyone on camera, makes you feel more connected and encourages more participation, people hide in Teams meetings when it's just initials on a screen

Yeah but it’s not just about you though is it. Some people will otherwise participate well enough (unless you’re desperate to put a face to the voice of whoever speaks) and I do agree that it can help with feeling connected but it’s also understandable if you feel uncomfortable with a group of strangers seeing the interior of wherever you are. I understand it in meetings but if it’s just a church/shared-screen thingy on Zoom or whatever, then this nonsense of forcing people who aren’t speaking to switch their cameras on needs to go away. In those cases we’re all looking at the same screen so focus on looking at that, not other people. No good comes from being an ardent camera inspector in situations like that. Everyone should have the recognised right to a certain level of privacy.

You can always blur your background. Amazingly pre-Covid and Teams most meetings were in person and people would see what you looked like!

Fair enough if it's a large call with dozens of people on but if it's a small one where everyone is supposed to be contributing then cameras should be on imo

More meetings than not these days are still face-to-face (I mean, duh). But doing it face-to-face is not the same as doing it over the web in an environment which isn’t going to be prepped up for everyone to see. Some people will be sleeping behind the camera (it’s a bit embarrassing when they forget to turn their mic. off and everyone can hear snoring), others will be making notes while eating jollof rice and some Nandos chicken wings. No doubt they’re engaged but their mouths/faces might be otherwise preoccupied and that’s fair.