I don’t know. Without a webcam I am missing about 100% of all your nonverbal communication. I can see why one would be handy.

Is it really that hard to put on a shirt for your meetings?

> missing...nonverbal communication

Screen sharing?

I don't think that was the non-verbal communication he was referring to.

I was hoping it wasn't body language, because that's more of a detriment to the meeting, since it's completely subjective. We have an exec that constantly interrupts meetings to ask people about their body language, but the bad part is that he's almost always interpreted it incorrectly, and he proceeds to make mountains out of molehills and waste everyone's time (often while making people extremely uncomfortable). Unless it's a sales presentation where a professional salesperson needs to "read the room", we're better off without cams.

We are east coast and always use webcams. I find it really helps communication.

If the goal is to match the level of communication of being local, then webcams are a must.

East coast company. Turning on webcams is pretty common but by no means universal. It's more common in smaller meetings.

It’s a tech vs non tech thing. Everyone in older companies tend to be used to communicating by phone.