What is Zoom fatigue?
Zoom fatigue or, more generally, virtual meeting fatigue, is the anxiety, exhaustion, or burnout that results from the prolonged use of virtual communication platforms.
The surging adoption of global remote, hybrid, and distributed work has supercharged the adoption of virtual communication tools such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc., to facilitate business continuity, seamless communication, and social connectedness.
How to identify virtual meeting fatigue in the workplace?
A team manager’s mindful empathy combined with every team member’s cooperation can go a long way in identifying symptoms of zoom fatigue in self and in those around. The following cues are typical signs of the onset of virtual meeting exhaustion:
- Irritability and apathy towards self and others
- Dip in productivity in tasks and work that snowball into missed deadlines or low-quality work
- Low morale along with an overall sense of tiredness or unenthusiastic behavior
- Tardiness and canceling of meetings and calls indicating avoidant behavior
How to overcome zoom fatigue?
A practical understanding of what causes zoom fatigue can help individuals and managers devise strategies that can help beat fatigue. Research shows that virtual conferencing is exhausting for more than the obvious reason of participating in many calls each day.
The human response to the unnatural and rather new methods of communication through video calls plays a primary role in leading to mental fatigue. Our communication methods have evolved to work with many cues and non-verbal signals. But in video communication, we miss these dynamics, thus becoming tired and stressed. Additionally, we are burdened with many data inputs such as the speakers, the chatbox, seeing our own reflection and multiple faces, staying attentive and focusing on a screen, etc., on a video call; All leading to greater exhaustion.
In order to overcome such exhaustion, we can work to minimize the stress caused by our physical surroundings and also manipulate our cognitive understanding of the environment to benefit our ease of use of these tools. Here are some ideas:
1. Try using fun backgrounds
A change in the scenario can liven up and add flavor to a virtual meeting. Explore the many background options available through the meeting service provider, or go all-out in finding your personality fit through pictures on free channels such as Unsplash. A great background be it of pets, superheroes, or scintillating landscapes can be a great tool for initiating social connectedness and can serve as icebreakers.
2. Scheduled breaks during the call
During long-drawn-out virtual meetings, be mindful of the clock. If your team needs to be involved in a meeting longer than 30 minutes, find opportune moments to suggest a coffee break. Lead by example in taking a short break to stretch or walk around (videos off, of course) and encourage that your teams take scheduled breathers.
3. Practice using your voice as per the situation
Vocal ranges can take on many personalities of their own. Think about how you talk to kids or to pets. How does your voice sound when you’re happy or excited? Tap into the personality of your voice to emote.
Don’t be afraid to use an excited voice when you complete a project or a stern decision-making voice for situations involving serious talk. Expressing, even through simply changing your tone can help acknowledge feelings that can then be managed and regulated.
4. Enforce positive talk
When situations get tough, we need people to pull through. Enforcing a scheduled 5 minutes to share the good news, or a picture of a cute puppy, or exciting improvements at both personal and professional fronts, etc., can build morale for self and for companions. Over time, this positivity journaling can build into a culture of prioritizing and acknowledging good things.
5. Dress up and connect
For many virtual conference users, the routine that involved self-care, preparation, and associated quirks of getting ready for work or an in-person meeting is missed in the virtual world.
A great way to cope is by reintroducing those routines, even in a virtual work world. Find the time and make the effort to dress up for meetings, keep a nice cup of tea or coffee handy, and genuinely connect with the speaker and aim to establish rapport. Simulating a real meeting can help alleviate the unnatural effects of virtual meetings.
6. Look at the camera
People who make direct eye contact with others activate a synergistic circuit in their brain called the “social brain” network. This brain circuit facilitates social connectedness by activating our innate personality and ability to make connections through genuine conversations, easy observations, funny jokes, etc.
We understand that such an effect can be simulated in virtual settings by simply looking at the camera rather than looking at our own image on the screen. This helps us relax more in the virtual setup and become confident in our natural composure.
7. Rely on collaboration analytics
Video conferencing will evolve to accommodate the diverse use of technology where individual success will be driven by our ability to foresee and adapt to a changing world. To stay ahead of the game, we have to keep pace with the pace of technology.
A great way to do this is by relying on data-driven and factual collaboration analytics to understand patterns of communication and collaboration. A factual understanding of how we connect with one another with visibility into what communication processes are aiding success and what workflows are causing stress or burnout can help us manage our communication efforts.
Hatica’s work analytics platform equips individuals and teams to analyze and measure engagement and collaboration across apps and spot signals towards zoom fatigue so that we can proactively address those issues in the hybrid workplace.
Discover what works - get insights into the engagement metrics and patterns that drive success and propel your success with Hatica. Visit Hatica for more information.