It’s been a long, weird battle in the trenches of remote work. Remember those giant company-wide Zoom meetings back in 2020? Everyone sat there glued to their Brady Bunch squares, pretending to be laser-focused while the world burned outside and half the company wondered if they were about to get axed.
Funny thing is, getting axed wasn’t always a bad deal. Some folks landed those “sorry, we’re restructuring” severance packages and walked straight into another gig with a $20k raise and a manager who doesn’t care if they answer Slack at 10 a.m. or 10 p.m. Living the dream, really.
And then there was that Customer Success Manager, the legend who decided showing up to work was optional if you had enough creativity and a webcam. He recorded himself sipping coffee at perfectly timed 2-minute-and-17-second intervals, looped the footage, and slapped it up as his Zoom background. Genius, right? Almost. Because Maggie in HR watches gallery view the way hawks watch field mice. By the second meeting she noticed the same sip, same blink, same nod, cycling like a busted cuckoo clock. By the third, she had a stopwatch out. By the fourth, the loop boy was gone.
Now here we are, years later, and Zoom culture is still a hot mess. Cameras went dark, people disappeared behind avatars and blurry backgrounds. Meetings started sounding like séances: “Is Jim even here? Knock once if yes.”
But lately the pendulum swung back. Cameras are on again. Great, right? Except now I don’t actually see you. I see Joe Rogan’s latest podcast episode reflected crystal-clear in your lenses.
So here’s my unsolicited workplace PSA:
• Turn on your damn camera.
• Invest in glare-free, anti-reflective glasses.
• And for the love of all that is caffeinated—don’t try to video-loop your way through life.
Because yes, I want to see your face. But no, I don’t want to watch your infinite coffee loop while pretending to listen to Q3 strategy updates.
Welcome to remote work in 2025. Same circus, slightly better optics.