Teams: Camera on or off? Why do some teams NOT want to see each other?

[@C2112-s7y]

I hate camera on! When in a meeting someone is drowning on about themselves on their holidays I can get on with my work! I also do not want to look at peoples ugly faces on my screen so I minimise teams!

[@oztabletpc]

Wow! Maybe need to think about your career is you're too pretty for it! 🤔

[@C2112-s7y]

@@oztabletpc My appearance has got nothing to do with it. My point is I have noticed an increase in the number of "extroverts" who's only purpose is to promote and talk about themselves on camera. As an introvert I prefer to remain away from the spotlight and be productive, which is why I prefer to have the camera off. If you had to endure the pointless small talk as I do, you would understand.

[@oztabletpc]

Sorry, should have said that I was being sarcastic based on your 'ugly' comment. Anyway, sounds like a toxic workplace. The whole commentary here assumes that you work in a place that is nurturing for both introverts and extroverts. Sorry that you haven't experienced that in your workplace.

[@isaacsac5]

There are some organizations where some of the people on the team have their camera on and some have their camera off.

[@andyH_England]

I believe that if you are office based communicating with a client, customer or another office then face-to-face is preferable, but within agreement of parties. As for when you work from home (WFH) as we have the last two years, I believe there is a privacy issue where we want to keep our private lives separate from work as much as we can in these tiresome times. So I feel that camera-off is appropriate WFH. Many have children and animals and partners maybe not aware of what is going on as not all of us have big homes to have separate office zones. When it comes down to it, I feel it is up to the parties involved. If they are working hard doing their job well and they do not want the camera on then why would I care whether they are 100% concentrating?

[@fallinginthed33p]

Camera on becomes more like micro management.

[@billnalen]

My team is camera off. We've been meeting every morning for 30 minutes for 10+ years so we just got used to audio only.

[@federicoangelociasullo1020]

Very interesting video. Very professional and helpful, as always. Sorry for my bad English.

[@oztabletpc]

Il tuo inglese è di gran lunga migliore del mio italiano! Ti voglio bene fratello mio!

[@federicoangelociasullo1020]

@@oztabletpc Anche io ti voglio bene.

[@favillaverde]

Prefer camera off, camera on is distracting. My team is highly engaged and we never host meetings with camera on. It's personal preference and if we work well with cameras off then it doesn't matter.

[@chasisaac1094]

Uhm really? Please no camera. I can do more without camera on.

[@jasraboin]

Camera cult

[@engedusouza]

Camera on is my way of working. I have no problem if an employee can't turn hers/his camera on. I keep mine on anyways (except when clearly internet connections is hurting everyone, so then I shut mine) I work with my global team, so no big deal to get into these collaborative and "cam on" type of meetings these days. What I did to make this a much better experience? Well, I renewed my office at home, in a specific, clean, bright and full of resources work space. I wake-up in the morning, get dressed-up just like I would be going to the office, get into my office and jump right into my work routine. Working from home brings so much benefits, and each individual must take advantage of it to develop a better organization methodology, laser focus on the correct yet common objectives and equally important, help others to succeed. MS Teams is there as one tool to help, and I can`t wait to get the new merging tools from MS that will integrate the new Planner for full management of project oriented tasks in a more fluid and complete way.

[@2cforde]

Great video! I work at a company that was using MS Teams long before the pandemic. We've always been default camera off, it was okay when we were in the office but after three years of "hybrid" I.e. predominantly WFH across the business. The lack of interaction is a big drag. Video is no substitute for f2f, but it's definitely better than audio only without even display pictures to talk to 😢

[@benbrown9377]

I think we should mirror the in-person experience as much as possible. For Teams calls that would ordinarily have been done in person, camera on. If the transaction on Teams could just as easily have been a phone call, camera off is fine. I don’t remember going to a meeting in the office where everyone wore a bag on their head, so why do we accept the same because we are using Teams? I agree that a lot is lost for the facilitator and participants if they can’t feed off the visual cues of the group.

[@adnoclover]

in my organization (13.000 employees) 70% of the meetings are on MS Teams, and the mandate is camera off to save bandwith, sure we are saving on it but we are losing on engadgement.

[@ElGordoFreeman]

It's just a simple answer: Privacy or it's maybe an even more simple answers: Bandwidth saving or people sometimes are not dressed properly in their houses

[@oztabletpc]

Bandwidth aside... Do you also hide your face from people when in the office? If so, how do you achieve that? And what impact do you think it has on communication? Remember that communication involves fast more that words.

[@ElGordoFreeman]

You are right, we don’t hides our faces in the office and I prefer voice calls over chats too. But, when you’re working from home, somebody could don’t want to show his house/family on a work meeting.

[@oztabletpc]

@@ElGordoFreeman Sure, absolutely. But in many places that would be an exception rather than the rule..

[@NethirOsman]

So much value in this video, even at home or in a supportive friend group, as you mention when the purpose or mission is what we work towards, so much more gets done and you feel rejuvenated and uplifted rather than drained and dreading and doubting. That is when magic happens and goals can be reached and shared with everyone

[@JeffreyLear]

Camera off.

[@Skans-Gustav]

Video on is hardly more productive. Almost more disturbing.