I never use video, can't stand it. I don't see what it adds when I've been working with most of my colleagues for well over a decade.
Agile working (none software)
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Engagement, collaboration, respect, richer communication....I never use video, can't stand it. I don't see what it adds when I've been working with most of my colleagues for well over a decade.
What's generally your opinion on the the meetings you attend?
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I don't see the point either then again I'm browsing the website for 25 minutes after I've said my piece
.I leave video off for the most part — I don’t think it really adds much.
I also find that usually when I’m on a call, I will either be taking notes or have a browser window up or something, so the chances of me having the video window in the top-middle of my primary screen are slim.
The result is, I’m rarely looking at the camera anyway, so it can look quite rude if my eyes are looking elsewhere. Even worse if my Zoom/Skype/Teams window is open on my second monitor because then I’m looking far away to the left to see the other person.
I also find that usually when I’m on a call, I will either be taking notes or have a browser window up or something, so the chances of me having the video window in the top-middle of my primary screen are slim.
The result is, I’m rarely looking at the camera anyway, so it can look quite rude if my eyes are looking elsewhere. Even worse if my Zoom/Skype/Teams window is open on my second monitor because then I’m looking far away to the left to see the other person.
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You all sound like great people to have in a team.
How does video on enhance respect? Or collaboration? Or even engagement?
I'm really confused why video on would make a (positive) difference. I leave my video off at all times.
And if the meetings are so unengaging that people (with video off) prefer to respond to emails, etc (or do other work), then perhaps the meetings should be shorter
Forcing people to pay attention with video on (I imagine from all this that you must look straight at the camera and hands must be visible at all times
) sounds like a manager's fantasy and everybody else's nightmare 
How does video on enhance respect? ...
And if the meetings are so unengaging that people (with video off) prefer to respond to emails, etc (or d
o other work), then perhaps the meetings should be shorter
That some people blanket ban video AND find their meetings uninteresting, are probably not unrelated.
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How does video on enhance respect? Or collaboration? Or even engagement?
I'm really confused why video on would make a (positive) difference. I leave my video off at all times.
And if the meetings are so unengaging that people (with video off) prefer to respond to emails, etc (or do other work), then perhaps the meetings should be shorter
Forcing people to pay attention with video on (I imagine from all this that you must look straight at the camera and hands must be visible at all times
Perhaps the difference is I work with teams of people who work together, collaborating on ideas and how we plan to solve things.
From how you describe your unengaging meetings I can only assume you work on your own or in a hierarchical organisation where you get told what to do.
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I just don't get what video adds, how on earth did you manage pre internet/webcam.
/webcam.
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Talked to people face to face.I just don't get what video adds, how on earth did you manage pre internet
I just don't get what video adds, how on earth did you manage pre internet
A picture is worth a thousand words etc.
A lot of human communication is from visual cues.
In IT and particularly development you meet a lot of people with poor soft skills and not great with people in general. That does lead to poor communication skills.
Certainly you can have many communications that don't require video to be effective but then some do.
You didn't answer the question tho. How does turning video on in meetings enhance respect? Or the other things, engagement, collaboration?
You made the claim that turning on video in meetings "enhances respect" and I find that in particular quite odd.
Perhaps it’s because I’m in a team of four and we’ve known each other for years, but none of us have the camera on. If we’re discussing design decisions one of us will likely be sharing a screen, but I can’t say that being able to see their faces would add much to the design process. YMMV.
For me if someone rings me and has the camera on, I turn mine, (if I can) I think thats more respectful.
If I'm in a webinar, or a class, where there are only a few people. I think its more more respectful and you have better communication and connection with people if you can see each other. Even if its only to turn it on when you are replying to a question. I also manage a regular company update meeting weekly that has up to 200 people in it. In that meeting everyone having cameras on would be distracting. So only the people talking have video on.
To have these meeting without video would be very sterile and dull. It would be hard to read tone and other cue's without video.
Do I have meetings without video. Yes. We don't do agile, but we do have sprint like meetings. I do a deployment meeting every morning, thats never video. Unless we are demoing something etc. But thats not really a discussion meeting and only with a very few people. Thinking abut it most of the teams calls within the immediate team that are just day to day things, or one to one. Where a meeting is a discussion we tend to use video. There are meetings which are effectively tea/coffee breaks. They are often video.
I know this is primarily about work stuff. But in school/college its a different thing again. Video can make a big difference with engagement.
If I'm in a webinar, or a class, where there are only a few people. I think its more more respectful and you have better communication and connection with people if you can see each other. Even if its only to turn it on when you are replying to a question. I also manage a regular company update meeting weekly that has up to 200 people in it. In that meeting everyone having cameras on would be distracting. So only the people talking have video on.
To have these meeting without video would be very sterile and dull. It would be hard to read tone and other cue's without video.
Do I have meetings without video. Yes. We don't do agile, but we do have sprint like meetings. I do a deployment meeting every morning, thats never video. Unless we are demoing something etc. But thats not really a discussion meeting and only with a very few people. Thinking abut it most of the teams calls within the immediate team that are just day to day things, or one to one. Where a meeting is a discussion we tend to use video. There are meetings which are effectively tea/coffee breaks. They are often video.
I know this is primarily about work stuff. But in school/college its a different thing again. Video can make a big difference with engagement.
Well none of my local colleagues use video either so it's not just me. We see it as a waste of CPU time and bandwidth.
Stand-ups are generally useful for making sure other people know what's going on and getting help when needed. I don't mind those - we have them down to 10-15 mins.
Some of the retrospectives/planning meetings etc take hours. In our case we are talking over 40 hours combined of people's time for those sort of meetings when they could be doing far more productive work. It's staggering to me.
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Our tean has 10 people in it so wasting 10 hours of time of meetings seems very counter productive. We used to manage on 2 hours of meetings in the same time so we obviously can't magically get more efficient.Well none of my local colleagues use video either so it's not just me. We see it as a waste of CPU time and bandwidth.
Stand-ups are generally useful for making sure other people know what's going on and getting help when needed. I don't mind those - we have them down to 10-15 mins.
Some of the retrospectives/planning meetings etc take hours. In our case we are talking over 40 hours combined of people's time for those sort of meetings when they could be doing far more productive work. It's staggering to me.
Some of this about how remote working is managed is cultural. Some people hate video so shouldn't forced to do it. Obviously.
Well thats more about meeting in general. If you were in the office they would be even less productive. At least remotely you can do something else while you are listening to it.
In a technical meeting people not looking at the camera, and doing something in the background, like working on another screen is just normal. It no difference to being in a meeting and referencing stuff on a laptop.
Well thats more about meeting in general. If you were in the office they would be even less productive. At least remotely you can do something else while you are listening to it.
In a technical meeting people not looking at the camera, and doing something in the background, like working on another screen is just normal. It no difference to being in a meeting and referencing stuff on a laptop.
Well theres an art to not wasting time in meeting and making them more effective.
To be honest, I think the reason there's so much resistance to Agile in a lot of technical/infra teams is because it feels like a whole load of extra admin. No techie likes doing admin drudgery
