Comment by ubermonkey

You weren't asking me, but I run into this same thing.

In my business -- project management software -- I'm in online meetings a LOT (say, 20 hours a week?) because everyone in my company is remote. We have never, ever used video. It just doesn't come up. Nobody wants it internally, and none of our customers ask for it in external meetings. I don't think any of them use it internally, either (and many of our customers are large, distributed organizations with offices all over the place).

This seems normal to me.

My neighbor is an IT VP for a health care concern. She travels a lot (30-40%), and when she's home she's in online meetings pretty much all the time. And in her company, video is ALWAYS included. I have no idea why, and neither does she; it's a cultural thing.

The upshot, though, is that I work in t-shirts and cargo shorts, and she has to be "office ready" even though she works at home. However, I will note that, if I run into her outside when she's walking the dog, it's not unusual to see her in a nice blouse, hair and makeup done, but wearing yoga pants or whatever. Which is its own kind of hilarious.