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This is a little off-topic, but a little tangential. Why do so many people insist on doing video chats? Regardless of camera quality, you're going to come in as

This is a little off-topic, but a little tangential. Why do so many people insist on doing video chats? Regardless of camera quality, you're going to come in as a blocky and stuttery mess to most people anyway. Audio-only has worked really well for my team for a few years now (my team is all remote all thr time), so it's always jaring when interfacing with the rest of the company and having people pop up with video.

BlargMcLarg 6y ago
They want to mimic the office as much as possible, that's really all the argument tends to boil down to. Some will claim it is for charisma --> sorry, no amount of charisma is going to fix a bad cam and bad audio. Some will claim it is more productive --> I really only need to hear your words or see your screenshare, your face moving in front of my screen is distracting. Some will claim it is more natural --> Try looking at a whiteboard while everyone stares at you from the front. That's about what happens when you use videochat in important meetings. I don't think that's the way people used to have meetings. Some will claim it is to read body language --> Don't depend on body language and stop assuming things from audio alone. We're adults. People will tell you when something is up. The only argument I can't go against is bonding. But if you don't want to bond with your team past business-only, that argument is voided. And I haven't named the cons yet. One of my pet peeves being people will start calling you over every single thing, make you repeat yourself often, misunderstand or even forget what was said in 10 minutes. You don't have that problem with asynchronous communication, and it also yanks the callee away from their flow.
dragonwriter 6y ago
> Why do so many people insist on doing video chats? Control. They want to make sure the silent people in the meeting aren't doing something else or not actually present. It's probably why it's particularly common with managers who run meetings that are neither effectively timeboxed, limited to the essential personnel as required, nor planned well to handle an agenda that requires a meeting rather than an email or exchange of emails to handle effectively.

BlargMcLarg 6y ago

They want to mimic the office as much as possible, that's really all the argument tends to boil down to. Some will claim it is for charisma --> sorry, no amount of charisma is going to fix a bad cam and bad audio. Some will claim it is more productive --> I really only need to hear your words or see your screenshare, your face moving in front of my screen is distracting. Some will claim it is more natural --> Try looking at a whiteboard while everyone stares at you from the front. That's about what happens when you use videochat in important meetings. I don't think that's the way people used to have meetings. Some will claim it is to read body language --> Don't depend on body language and stop assuming things from audio alone. We're adults. People will tell you when something is up. The only argument I can't go against is bonding. But if you don't want to bond with your team past business-only, that argument is voided. And I haven't named the cons yet. One of my pet peeves being people will start calling you over every single thing, make you repeat yourself often, misunderstand or even forget what was said in 10 minutes. You don't have that problem with asynchronous communication, and it also yanks the callee away from their flow.

dragonwriter 6y ago

> Why do so many people insist on doing video chats? Control. They want to make sure the silent people in the meeting aren't doing something else or not actually present. It's probably why it's particularly common with managers who run meetings that are neither effectively timeboxed, limited to the essential personnel as required, nor planned well to handle an agenda that requires a meeting rather than an email or exchange of emails to handle effectively.