[JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B]

I see people talking about video calls all the time in the USA when working remotely but I don't understand if it's a social or cultural thing.

I'm French and I never did video calls, ever. It's always audio calls using Teams and we just show the relevant part of the screen to the audience (aka Screen sharing or something).

Is there something I'm missing?

[Falcorian]

It's definitely a culture thing, probably more at the company level but certainly country level culture matters as well.

At my San Francisco based fintech, the culture that's developed is:

For one-on-ones and small meetings where everybody is expected to participate, cameras are on.

For large one to many broadcasts (like an all hands) generally people turn the camera off.

But I would say probably 95% my meetings have cameras on, so I'm constantly "seeing people".

[ghaff]

Pretty much the same. At moderately large East Coast company, big (usually optional) informational meetings, non-presenters usually have their cameras off. Small team meetings and 1:1s, cameras are mostly on though no one will object if someone has to shut theirs off for some reason.

[bamfly]

It varies company to company in the US. Ditto video on vs video off being the norm.

I've seen companies that dealt with a ton of business travel before WFH got big, prefer actual dial-in-on-a-phone conference calls for meetings, even when all parties happened to be in offices at the time, well into the Zoom era. It weirded me out at first, but I think they may be on to something. If you don't need to screen share, not every call needs to be a video call. Don't need to install anything—anyone with a phone, which is everyone, can join. Easier to join on-the-go. Reliable Internet connection not required. If your phone has signal, you can join the call. Can even join from a wired desk phone.

Other companies, every call's a video call and you'll catch shit if you keep your camera off. Remote cultures exist on a spectrum between those. (and, of course, open source projects with distributed teams are often highly productive with little more than IRC, email, git, and an issue tracker)

[JohnFen]

> I see people talking about video calls all the time in the USA when working remotely

I work in the US for a company that doesn't allow WFH.

All of our meetings are via video calls, even though we are all in the same place. This has been the norm in my experience for over a decade now.

The place I worked before my current employer did the same, but allowed people to keep the video off if they chose. Everyone chose to keep the cameras off, except most of the management.

[bluefirebrand]

A lot of people think there's something missing without being able to see people's faces.

I really disagree, but people want everyone on camera.

[sarchertech]

I’m in the USa, and I’ve been remote for over a decade. Until the pandemic I almost never did a video call. Then everyone went remote and it suddenly became the norm.

It seemed to start because managers who weren’t used to remote wanted to keep tabs on their employees.

[uxp100]

In the US today video calls are pretty common for work, don’t think you’re missing anything. I worked remotely pre pandemic and only ever just used a phone and webex. Poor audio, sometimes odd behaviors, especially around the world (the zones did not always perfectly combine, so you could tell it was an India based call vs a US one) but basically functional. Today I do video calls, the audio is far better, but the video makes me feel like a psychopath, and completely emotionally drained after a long meeting. It’s weird.