What are the repercussions for having your camera off when you’re “supposed to” have it on?

In government, NOTHING.

Even in the private sector, there are none. If you suck that much as an employee that your career success is dependent on such nonsense, then you have bigger problems.

The better question is, WHY would any manager insist on cameras? Sounds like potential HR / perversion issue to me. Only explanation.

Cameras off … anything other then that is dumb and I’m going to assume you’re old or a manager feeling the need for a power move.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the culture? My office is camera on for smaller meetings (around 10 or less people) and only turn your camera on if you're speaking in a large office wide meeting (around 50 people). So it would be odd and unusual for someone to have camera off on a regular basis. I would assume they are not paying attention or not in an appropriate location.

Same. On for small meetings, off for big ones unless you’re speaking.

We do the same at my company. Most smaller meetings are camera on, large ones usually just the speakers keep them on.

I really don’t care either way but I would rather wfh and have to have the camera on for meetings than come into the office.

For companies that expect “cameras on” for smaller meetings, what’s the rationale?

My camera is off because I’m doing work while I have to suffer through another meeting that could have been an email.

I am swamped with work. I can’t just stop and stare at a camera for an hour every day for your unnecessary zooms.

If the “meeting” would have been done via phone prior to Covid, then insisting on cameras now is stupid.

I regularly keep my camera on but STILL do other things, and assume that only weirdos/perverts or someone with a crush on me would notice (why else would they gawk at my video??).

Anonymous wrote:What is your impression/assumption of a person who only uses audio during zoom?

Easily distracted by own image. Ugh, how do I have my gray hair than my mom? Is that a stain on my blouse? Can they see what my spouse/child/cat is doing behind me?

Plus, I had a coworker with body dysmorphia who became severely depressed by zoom.

Attorney here. Camera off for almost all internal meetings. Frankly, if you’re not multitasking during an internal meeting, that means you don’t have enough work.

For new or newer clients, I always do camera on. For some external clients who are consistent with cameras on, I will too (if I look decent, but fine skipping it if I don’t look decent). If we have an external call with client and opposing side, it’s always cameras off. In other situations I always default to cameras off.

Listen, I am being paid by clients for typically 5-7 hours a day of calls. The balance of my day (typically a 10 hr workday) is doing work at my computer. For the zoom calls I’m on, ninety percent of them, I am “the star” and people are asking me complex questions and need complex answers. Me being on the spot with zoom and worrying about how I look and if I’m gesticulating too much with my hands, or facing the camera…. This is not sustainable for 5-7 hours a day while also giving advice worth $2000 an hour. Before Covid, I was giving that advice to clients on audio only phone calls. They can live without seeing me on screen in exchange for extremely valuable advice.

I assume they are multitasking, maybe with work and maybe with personal stuff.

The general rule in my agency is cameras on if the meeting has been called by someone in your supervisory chain, optional otherwise. I think that's fair. I would feel strange having a one on one with my supervisor being camera off, but there are other times I'm emailing with colleagues and we jump into Zoom for a quick voice chat (because the audio is better than Skype and creating a dial-in conference number is a pain), and I don't want to get camera ready for that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the culture? My office is camera on for smaller meetings (around 10 or less people) and only turn your camera on if you're speaking in a large office wide meeting (around 50 people). So it would be odd and unusual for someone to have camera off on a regular basis. I would assume they are not paying attention or not in an appropriate location.

Same. On for small meetings, off for big ones unless you’re speaking.

We do the same at my company. Most smaller meetings are camera on, large ones usually just the speakers keep them on.

I really don’t care either way but I would rather wfh and have to have the camera on for meetings than come into the office.

Nobody looks good (or decent) on camera. How many up the nose shots do I need to see of coworkers?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the culture? My office is camera on for smaller meetings (around 10 or less people) and only turn your camera on if you're speaking in a large office wide meeting (around 50 people). So it would be odd and unusual for someone to have camera off on a regular basis. I would assume they are not paying attention or not in an appropriate location.

I would assume they’re not paying full attention and are multitasking online or off.

I regularly keep my camera off during meetings. All of the above is so true.

We have been a distributed workforce since the 2000s, conference calls and webex were standard for most meetings.

Fast forward 2023, we use teams, and people focus on the slides or live updates meeting minutes and action items displayed, no one is looking at the Brady bunch squares to see peoples faces. Camera on just wastes bandwidth.

Maybe if you are truly talking to one or two people like a face to face, sure you can use camera but I certainly had involved phone conversations before 2020.

Assuming a company provides a device with technology that does background blurring and/or virtual backgrounds, as well as audio that filters sound (headphones), or an allowance to get those things, camera-on should be the default.

Showing your face demonstrates engagement, basic courtesy, and professionalism. Of course sometimes we need to be audio-only, but if you are regularly engaged that is fine.

In a few years we'll see studies about how people who never turn their cameras on are not promoted at the same level.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's creepy when the person doesn't have their camera on, but when they share their screen to show something, it shows that they're watching YOU on their screen. I forever write them off as a creep and I feel violated.

I sort of feel this way too. We have these meetings with about 8 of us. 5 of us always have our cameras on and we contribute to the meeting. The cameras off people don't speak even. It's like they're just there to creep on us. We're all peers, and none of our managers are on.

And about what we did before zoom- we would get together in our conference rooms with a video camera if everyone wasn't in the same city. I'm a millennial and don't remember a time before video cameras.

Are the meetings mandatory?

j

No. We’re peers helping each other. I’m very annoyed by the people who don’t contribute and just creep on us.