>>When companies fund proper WFH workspaces, why not.
Let’s see, I needed a professional grade microphone, headphones and a decent cintiq tablet (for whiteboard and drawing), as well as room soundproofing. Provided by my Singapore employer. I don’t miss their Google meet meetings.
Too bad most companies give you a crap top and most people are forced to use their dining room or kitchen tables for work.<<
God where am I, DU? What a crybaby you are.
The built in camera and speakers on standard laptops work just fine. I bought a $40 camera since I use a 27” monitor. If you are not willing to invest a few $ in your work environment, you do not have a career, you just have a job.
Bottom line: the jobs will go to people who are OK with standard equipment and are willing to chip in a few $ will get the jobs and the work.
Babies who throw tantrums and make demands of people who are in no position to do so will be on the dole.
No one owes you anything.
Quality vs. Garbage.
Not if they want professional grade video lessons/ recordings (think Udemy or LinkedIn Learning quality, not 10-year YouTube streamer quality at 320) for teaching use or resale.
So yeah, they want me to use Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Protools and Camtasia, I’m not sure in the hell not buying those packages, or using my personal licenses that I did pay for. While there are free open-source crapware products that I could kludge together, it’s not worth my paid time and effort to do so.
And no, I won’t buy or use $40 Chinese-branded garbage camera. Looked on Amazon. $40 was all that cheap Chinese garbage, definitely non-production grade cameras. I needed 4K that can be down-sampled to 1920HD. None of the $40, or even $200 Chinese cameras could do that. Bought it and got reimbursed for it. Ended up with a higher-end Logitech.
And Microphones? You go ahead and do steaming/ production/meetings on your $40 camera with that lovely built-in camera microphone. Good luck with that. Think even the cheapest Sensheimer has that beat by miles. Same. Bought a nice sensheimer mic as was reimbursed for it.
Just today, they were reviewing video footage and they were complaining about my mouse control problems (you try drawing complex or even simple math equations using a mouse on a digital whiteboard). So they are now reimbursing me for a lovely 16” Wacom cintiq tablet. Yeah they suggested at first I get a cheap off-brand Chinese tablet to do it. I refused. Told them no Chinese-branded products in my house unless there are absolutely no other options. (Other options was an iPad or Samsung tablet, not well-suited for Windows use)
They suggested I install another camera, a camera-switching streaming deck, and a white board wall be installed, with later reimbursement. They eventually went with the much cheaper option, the Wacom cintiq.
To summarize. It my employer wants professional grade videos (even the zoom classroom sessions are stored and edited), they sure in the hell will pay for it.
Nothing crying about it.