Eye-to-Eye: For Healthier Culture and Communication

The great legacy of COVID, like it or not, is that most jobs today can be done working remotely from home or anywhere you please. It has changed the face of the world, with workers abandoning high density urban labor pools to seek their dream homes in the most remote locations. All meetings are online on a computer — you don't even have to wear pants! Employers in general are pushing employees to come back to the office, but like Pandora's box, what was released is well established and will never really come back.

A lot of good has come from remote work, such as increased flexibility, reduced overhead costs,  increased productivity, reduced environmental impact, and global collaboration. But at the same time there have been some challenges, such as technical issues, blurred work-life boundaries, social isolation, communication challenges, trouble collaborating, and lack of supervision. It's these challenges I want to address, specifically isolation, communication, collaboration and supervision.

Many of us in software development have been working remotely at least part time for several years prior to COVID. To me and my colleagues prior to COVID, we did not notice many of the post-COVID issues that prevail today. Technology was no issue for developers. Work-life balance was easy because everyone else was working day shifts, and we were in a minority, so we did too. Socially, we were all tech nerds, accustomed to socializing online. Communication and collaboration were enhanced early on with IRC channels, which are similar to Teams and Slack — it's amazing how helpful that was, especially when passing a link or bits of code.

But there is one MAJOR difference that existed then that fell away when everybody else started to go online. It was something we took for granted — in fact, it would have felt rude or inconsiderate not to do this — we kept our cameras turned on during meetings.

What does it matter that in most companies cameras are turned off and stay off during every meeting?

TOM'S TAKE

There's not much research out there on the benefits of keeping cameras on, and what little there is focuses on justification to keep them off — not at all where I want to go, so instead I will present my experience on the benefits of Cameras-ON and leave it at that.

We all remember the before-time, when most of us attended work in person and face-to-face. No one hid their face all day or went around with a bag over their head — how very silly that would have been. And yet, there we were all of us on-site, hiding in cubicles between meetings but otherwise exposed in plain site. It was the only way we knew.

Then came the online meetings, forced isolation and virtual (if not simulated) human interaction. COVID was depressing for many of us, and many of us probably had a hard time getting the technology to work (such as cameras). Unfortunately, if Cameras-ON isn't a policy, then some people will just keep their cameras off because of tech issues, introversion or any number of insecurities. But if some keep cameras off, then it makes everyone else feel a little insecure, and no one wants to be the odd man on display, so they all go off.

I worked for a company where Cameras-ON was a hard and fast policy, with no room for negotiation. If you were in a virtual room of government employees (most of whom have no camera at all), then you had to be the only one with your camera on. It seems harsh, but if you wanted to work for our company — and hiring had been going like gangbusters — then you understood up front about Cameras-ON. Put simply, anyone who had an issue with the policy didn't work for us. And no, we were not a company of extraverts.

Our company was known for its friendliness, open-door culture, liberal knowledge sharing, and supporting individual dignity. No, that culture had a foundation of documented policy, training, and frequent team and supervisor engagement, but it seemed a lot easier when we had to look each other in the eye.

On occasion an employee would leave, and their new employer would not have a Cameras-ON policy. Our former employees would tell us that the job was okay, the pay was good, but it was not as friendly or supportive. A few former employees found a way to come back and would comment on how much better it was with Cameras-ON.

While recruiting, we would always explain the Cameras-ON policy, and we were usually met with positive reactions. Exceptions were few, and those interviews never lasted long.

It's my opinion, but it seems to me that after we all went virtual and Cameras-ON became a policy, that attitudes changed over all. I believe being able to take a break and retreat into your space between meetings took the pressure off the introverts and anyone feeling stressed from work. Then when we started asking people to come back to the office, the Company worked hard to make it enjoyable, and all-hands at the office day (Wednesdays) were like a little party every week. People were excited to be together.

CONCLUSION

While I admit there is value in remote work and virtual meetings, there's no harm in requiring cameras on during the small amount of time we have to meet virtually. And if its a policy, then the question of what's appropriate is removed, which makes it easier for those having trouble. Ultimately, it's up to the Company to enforce it in a gentle way that doesn't make insecurities worse.

~ Tom/*