Zoom blur and a controlling manager

sales savages, 

Like many of you, I've got accustomed to working from home. In meetings I have been using Zoom's blur feature to blur the background because I like my privacy. My manager, who per the title of this posts suggests. is super controlling, asked me today to unblur the background to see what's behind me. Nothing happened to prompt this, he was just wanting me to go off blur. 

Is this normal or okay? Between this and asking me to come into the office despite our company policy stating this is 100% voluntrily (we also had a Covid case just a week ago) it's starting to weigh on me. Not sure if I'm looking for advice or just a place to vent, but this feels a bit intrusive and controlling. 
🧠 Advice
😤 Conflict Resolution
🏡 WFH
21
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
12
☕️
If it’s not against company policy to use backgrounds here is what I’d say: “No”.

Homie can sit on a spike. 
CuriousFox
WR Officer
5
🦊
This answer has my full support.
saler
Valued Contributor
0
AE
Yeah it’s hard though as I’m new to the job and want to have good rapport with my boss but I feel like it’s getting out of hand.
Temp
Good Citizen
4
SDR
From my experience, if you give into little things at the beginning, they’ll start being even more controlling. Stand your ground my guy!
CuriousFox
WR Officer
3
🦊
Another great point.  
Incognito
WR Officer
10
Master of Disaster
.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
On a roll tonight!  
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
7
SaaS Eater
Ya thats a no from me dog
BmajoR
Arsonist
4
Account Executive
That's very weird. Just say it's a matter of privacy and because its your home and leave it at that. Would not be a bad idea to consult your HR department. 
Beans
Big Shot
4
Enterprise Account Executive
I'd ask why, it's your personal space.

Eat a dick. 
CuriousFox
WR Officer
3
🦊
A whole bag of em. 
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Why does he care so much?  Is he making sure you're not rolling in from the beach or the Bada Bing?
heelonthephone
Praised Answer
2
Inbound Closer
That’s not normal and there has to be a creative and nice way to say “mindja Fuggin bidness chief”
goose
Politicker
1
Sales Executive
No big deal.  Unless you take meetings from your bathroom.
cw95
Politicker
1
Sales Development Lead
Not okay, my now ex boss moaned to the ceo about not showing video or blurring so we all had to do it - I didn’t show mine in internal chats as it lowered the bandwith of the WiFi which I told them. Anyway, he moaned and complained so we did and then afterwards he got confused to who was talking as he only had his zoom on him self and not in gallery mode. However, his daughter who worked for us and another favourite of his was also allowed to have blurred and no video. It’s a little thing which they can bring up as they have nothing else to Moan about in my opinion.
ryan_howard
Politicker
1
Director, Business Development
What kind of weirdo cares what’s behind you? That’s crazy.
sugardaddy
Politicker
1
Head of Sales
Tell that mofo to back off! 
Fribbles
Notable Contributor
0
Sales doosh
Hes weird
Diablo
Politicker
0
Sr. AE
May be you manager is an ass, who bothers about whats behind or what's the color of your wall
MCP
Valued Contributor
0
Sales Director
I used to have a hard time getting people to use the cam at all, so…
IYNFYL
Politicker
0
Enterprise SaaS AE
I once took a zoom call while taking a dump, so that would be a hard pass on taking off that blur
dwightyouignorantsale
Politicker
0
Account Executive
this is one of the weirdest requests and strangest thing for a manager to get worked up over? like does he expect to see you at a rave in the background?? what difference does it make?
UserNotFound
Politicker
0
Account Executive
Is Dwight Schrute your manager, by chance? What a dick.
3

Zoom, Teams, BlueJeans,... which one do you prefer?

Question
12
Video conferencing software
84% Zoom
12% Teams
0% BlueJeans
4% Other
49 people voted
5

🤫it's ok... you can tell me... Why is your camera almost always OFF during Zoom calls?

Question
16
ALT: Are you annoyed when your camera is ON during a 1:1 but theirs is OFF
68% Yes (comment why)
8% No (comment)
20% Depends (comment)
5% My CSM is almost always off... I'm here to see what others think about me
40 people voted
5

How to avoid "You're on Mute" in Zoom Meeting?

Discussion
10