Why Some Canadians Resist Opening Cameras in Virtual Meetings

Virtual meetings have become part of the daily lives of many Canadians since the rise of teleworking, but while many companies insist on meetings with open cameras, some employees remain resistant. Here’s why.

Opening cameras during virtual meetings has become a growing and omnipresent issue for companies, which, in the midst of a labor shortage, fear losing their employees if they force them to turn on their cameras, indicated Annie Boilard, president of the Annie RH Network and specialist in “leadership” in the world of work.

Mental health in question

According to the specialist, the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) imposes on the employer the responsibility to reduce psychosocial risks, which could be compromised if the employee refuses to open your camera.

“Closing your camera systematically deprives managers of clues related to mental health,” explained M.^me Boilard.

On the other hand, “asking someone to turn their camera on all the time can create stress that leads to mental health issues”, for example that of always seeing yourself or knowing that you are always being watched, she added.

Some employees therefore refuse to turn on their camera for fear of being judged, for discomfort of constantly seeing their image or even for a privacy problem, she raised.

At the same time, more and more employees are going so far as to turn to their doctor to obtain medical authorization to keep their camera closed at all times, because of the stress generated – a phenomenon that did not exist before the pandemic .

M^me Boilard believes, however, that in the case of a refusal without a medical note, the usual approach for the manager is to try to understand and propose solutions, such as holding the meeting at their workplace, using funds to mask the room, etc.

“The obligation is less in tune with the times,” she said.

Communication issues

Not opening your camera can also cause communication and atmosphere problems within a team, according to M^me Boilard.

“The more people feel that they are part of the “gang”, the more affiliation they have with their work team, the more engaged they are in their work and the more likely they are to stay with the company. […] It’s very difficult for people to develop an affiliation with a black square,” reiterated M.^me Boilard.

This also constitutes a major challenge for managers, who must adapt to the new reality and carry out their supervisory work remotely, without a “magic recipe”, according to Annie Boilard.

“The nonverbal part is so important in communication, and nowadays there is so much pressure in organizations,” she added.

Videoconferencing policy

As for the consultant, many companies come to her to find solutions and better supervise these virtual meetings that everyone fears, because without a pre-established videoconferencing policy, the employer does not have much room to maneuver against a refusal to open your camera.

«[C’est] in politics that the company will find its angle. Sometimes it will be “we strongly recommend”, sometimes we will say “we require it for certain types of meetings”, or even offer the alternative of coming to meet face-to-face,” she explained.

Different types of meetings

This type of policy does not apply to all types of encounters, however. We mainly talk about meetings as a team meeting lasting more than an hour and usually involving between 100 and 300 people. These meetings can sometimes involve outside customers or last several hours for training, which makes the camera even more useful.

“If it’s a detail we want to discuss, we’ll do it by text, by email, by chat, by anything, but we won’t have a meeting for that. When we have to hold a meeting, it’s because it’s complex, so we want to seek out all the subtlety of the discussion,” she continued.