LinkedIn News’ Post [Video]

Micro-Management and Invasion of Personal Space, and Privacy, is NOT a Winning Combination. Bottom line should be meaningful metrics. Is the employee producing, or exceeding expectations? Poor performance cannot hide. If need your team's cameras on all day, that says more about how lacking you are than about your team.

Cameras make sense when you are having small meetings, especially between two to four people. Meetings with over 10 people, it's actually distracting. Our minds aren't make to look at 20 people's faces at once. There is also no way to tell who a person is looking at on camera versus an actual meeting. If someone forgets to mute and causes some background noise and I frown, then presenter may think I'm frowning at them. If we are all supposed to just sit there stone-faced, then why have the cameras on?

The ongoing debate about working remotely, now extending to working off-cam, seldom poses the question: to what extent does face to face interaction enhance or detract from the purpose of the gathering? Yes, jobs can be done from home. No, it doesn't mean you're disengaged by being off-cam. "The times are changing, get on board" is a short-sighted response to execs who want to see your faces, whether in person or on screen. What they really want is your facial expressions, your eye contact, your spontaneous smiles and frowns and furrowed brows. It is a lie to say face to face interaction isn't valuable. Necessary? Maybe not. But valuable? Absolutely. Some things don't change.

"More than 90% of bosses think [people who don't have their cameras on] are less engaged". Seriously? This is as silly as using "being at your desk" as a measure of productivity. By forcing people to turn their cameras on, you're not making anyone more engaged, you're just forcing them pretend to look engaged. Some people are more comfortable with their cameras on, some are more comfortable with no camera, some are extremely uncomfortable with being on video. If the way you assess whether a team member is engaged in their work, contributing to the team, committed to the organization, is by whether they have their video on, you're flying blind. At Ultranauts Inc we've been a 100% remote team from day one, and today, we have teammates working in 30 states across the US. We've consistently achieved 50%+ annual growth, and created an organization where less than 15% of us feel lonely at work and 90% feel more psychologically safe than anywhere else we've worked. And NO ONE one is forced to turn their camera on. Here are some practical tips for helping remote teams stay connected and productive, courtesy of the team at Ultranauts: https://info.ultranauts.co/blog/8-tips-for-making-remote-work-less-lonely

A lot of these managers want employees back in the office because remote work is showing that they can do the work without a manager.

I like turning on my camera and working in the office a couple of days a week. I think that entry level staff and new hires are at a disadvantage as they are missing out on opportunities to connect with staff at all career levels.

Amid the labor shortage: I believe that the teacher credential program needs a serious overhaul nationwide. There is still no reciprocity for teachers (or Principals such as myself) to cross state lines for another job. Who wants to move and then face the hurdle of incurring more expense to go back to school for another state's teaching credential? Education is barreling towards an extreme educator shortage---it has been very difficult for the past few years. Unless we make dramatic changes in the salaries and mobility potential for teachers, we will be facing a crisis. Those of us currently in education know that we are already in crisis.