Zooming for work means you are zooming into peoples' personal lives. A thread.
1: Some people have struggles with family, friends, money, where they live. Likely all of those struggles are harder right now. If you have problems in your personal life, a pandemic isn't helping

2: It seems nice to check in on the personal during your video call -- "how's your family?" , "Oh where is your home office?" -- but it reduces privacy and might be bringing personal lives into a work setting where it isn't welcome. Some people want to work on work, during work.

3: Maybe your colleague didn't have time to get dressed for work because they had to strap their kids down to have a meeting with you. They don't want to talk about that or turn on their camera. Maybe they don't feel like going into how sick a loved one is, or how scared they are

4: I don't know if I'm the asshole, but I liked going to my office to work and I'm over being asked a lot of personal questions during meetings. We had a discussion in my lab about how to navigate this thoughtfully, because of course you want to show you care and be supportive.

5: A general how are you is fine. If you get a short answer, leave it alone. If you are concerned, send a message someone can respond to when they feel like it. Don't pressure colleagues to video call or turn their camera on. Phones still work.

6: In my lab we are doing personal check-ins about how to support one another during all of this. @MeasurementGal set ground rules. Don't give unsolicited advice. It's okay to say, "I'm a 5/10 right now and that's all" You can share what is working for you if you feel like it.

7: If someone wants to tell you about their problems, let them take the lead on that, otherwise you can be supportive by being present and using your work meetings to get shit done.