My standing desk works until the camera comes on

I bought a standing-desk converter for my home office after realizing that entire mornings passed without me leaving the chair. The setup is basic but useful. I raise it for email, lower it for focused work and change position when I feel restless.

Then a video meeting starts.

Standing changes the camera angle, puts the top of my bookshelves in view and makes me look as if I am about to leave. People ask whether I am at a treadmill desk. If I shift my weight, I can see the movement in my own little square and become convinced everyone else can too. Within five minutes I lower the desk and sit.

This would not matter if meetings were occasional. Some days they occupy four or five hours. The equipment technically remains available while the social rules of video make it unusable. I have started treating camera-on time as chair time, even when I am mostly listening.

I could turn the camera off more often, but our team norm is to stay visible. I could frame the camera higher, although the converter moves the entire screen. A separate stand might solve it, but I hesitate to buy another object for a routine that was meant to be simple.

The deeper problem may be that I am trying to appear perfectly still because sitting reads as professional and movement reads as distraction. Nobody has actually complained. I have converted my own self-consciousness into company policy.

Would you normalize standing by mentioning it once, invest in a stable camera angle, or keep meetings seated and use the desk at other times? How much setup is reasonable before a flexible workspace stops being flexible?