The cheap little remotes work fine and are responsive. One thing to note is they are susceptible to picking up other IR signals. For instance if I point a random remote at my led strip, it will change color, flash etc.

There are traffic lights that integrate with Skype and Teams for this purpose. I had this when I worked in a glass office, and people would stand outside my door and motion at me when I was on a call, or walk in and start talking.

https://www.amazon.com/Embrava-Blynclight-Standard/dp/B07FRX1DK4

Ring is pretty simple, has inexpensive Hardware and monitoring, and has great integration with Alexa.