This has proven beneficial as we navigate and adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. A video call is fairly intimate, so you shouldn’t feel weird about suggesting a regular call instead when a client FaceTimes you. You also shouldn’t feel obligated to immediately turn on your video when meeting with people outside of your organization. You may be on a Zoom call, but you’ve also got 53 tabs open on your web browser, you’re answering an email, and your phone is ringing off the hook.
This also makes the lighter aspects of conversation, such as humor and comic relief, more difficult. Research shows that compared to face to face interactions, video calls are more mentally taxing for a number of reasons. It’s still important to keep in mind that, as we mentioned above, no one wants to sit in a Zoom meeting that could have been an email, so they don’t want to do the same in person. For remote working fatigue this reason, you should think about which meetings are the most necessary and relevant to the most people, and consider holding those in-person. Physical exercise is a great way to boost both your physical and mental energy; it can even help your productivity levels to produce better work! So not only does moving your body help you feel better, but it can also make you an even better boss or employee.
The downside of video calls
Bailenson adds that video conferencing companies could also address hypergaze by calculating the perceived distance between the user and their video-calling partner, then limit the maximum display size of heads on the screen. First, they created a tool to measure fatigue, which they named the Zoom Exhaustion and Fatigue Scale, or ZEF. Then they created a public survey and gathered over 10,000 responses that measured peoples’ fatigue on the ZEF scale, alongside statistics about how long each person spends on Zoom and demographic information.
- On a busy day, she might spend five or six hours in video conferences.
- When your work from home days become a slog, the solution may be to back off instead of doubling down.
- One of the most significant downsides of remote work is the dreaded “Zoom fatigue” that comes with the seemingly endless video meetings.
- Moving forward, employers may take a hybrid approach when it is safe to return to in-person work.
- As a result, individuals are feeling physically and mentally exhausted.
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The Technology Can Hamper the Experience
Sometimes, video conferencing is the best tool because it offers auto-captioning, screen sharing, or a social presence. It’s even worse in one-on-one meetings, when your colleague’s face appears so large on the screen, it’s as if they are standing less than two feet away. Video conferencing tools have become the default platforms for socially distanced human interaction, especially for many people who once worked in offices.
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Schedule Breaks Between Video Calls
You’ll find yourself zoom calling with international remote teams during off hours, while before the pandemic an email would suffice. The biggest reason for frustration during and after video calls is that we are unable to pick out non-verbal cues which are essential to good communication. 55% of communication is body language and in Zoom meetings we are limited to people’s faces. We spend a lot of unconscious brain power looking for nonverbal communication clues. Habit tracking is one of the best tips for feeling unmotivated when working from home. Sometimes, remote work funk is a side effect of unhealthy workday behaviors.
