If you are dreading your next work video call, you may be suffering from Zoom fatigue. When Zoom fatigue creeps into a virtual team meeting, it can quickly cause productivity and camaraderie issues for that team and its leaders.
But what exactly is Zoom fatigue, how can you identify it, and what can be done to overcome it? Read on to find out answers to these questions and more.
Simply speaking, Zoom fatigue refers to the feeling of exhaustion or mental drain caused by excessive use of video conferencing tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet.
A recent Stanford study into Zoom fatigue identified four causes for this feeling, including:
There are some tell-tale signs that you or your team may be suffering from Zoom fatigue. Some of them are as simple as you or your team members regularly cancelling or rescheduling virtual meetings, or refusing to turn your video on during a video conference call.
Other signs can be more difficult to recognize, especially for team managers to recognize it in their team (as opposed to identifying it in yourself). Healthline recently listed symptoms of Zoom fatigue to include:
With Covid-19 causing workplaces to go remote, and with 74% of employees (Source: Growmotely) stating that they want to keep working remotely at least part of the time forever more, Zoom fatigue is something that cannot be just ignored. However, there are ways to overcome this feeling of exhaustion.
The first step is identifying it, which if you have read this far down then you’ve already done that. So that’s a great start, well done! Beyond that, there are some simple measures to take or activities to employ to help you and your team avoid or overcome zoom fatigue.
A key step is to actually discuss the concept of Zoom fatigue with your colleagues. Check in with them on a regular basis to see if they are feeling exhausted and open a dialogue to see if there are changes that can be made to your routine to help avoid it.
Virtual team meetings aren’t going away anytime soon, they don’t have to be overly serious all the time. Through carefully crafted, unique experiences that have nothing to do with the day-to-day activities of your workplace, you can provide a much needed brain break for individuals and energize the team.
Sound good? Check out one of our amazing Sparks then! These short experiences, dropped into virtual meetings of all shapes and sizes have a positive impact in the battle against Zoom fatigue already!
Whilst Twitter accounts have been dedicated to the best Zoom backgrounds of famous people on TV, a recent Harvard Business Review article actually suggests that less is more when it comes to Zoom backgrounds (for the sake of our fatigue levels).
As noted, a plainer background means that our eyes and brains don’t have to process all the extra visual environmental cues, which lessens the strain and helps prevent fatigue.
Consider whether a full hour meeting is really necessary for your video call, or whether a shorter 30-minute version will do. There are many tools available for you to use to ensure your meetings are run efficiently and effectively so that you can shrink the meeting size.
Tools like Hugo, Butter or Yac all help team meetings become more organized, fun and engaging. We took a look at them further in our article on 5 amazing products you need to try with your virtual team!
Raise your hand if you’ve worked in roles that have had you pulled from one meeting to another? 🖐 Yeah, we all know those days suck.
Even though we drop amazing Sparklers into meetings all day across the globe we are huge defenders of calendars and big NO supporters when it comes to unnecessary meetings. Balanced and meaningful work can only be achieved when we are given time to calmly focus.
So when should teams sync up? When connection, diverse thinking and active collaboration to creatively solve problems is of the highest priority.
So, now you know what Zoom fatigue is, and how it impacts your team, what are you going to do about it? If the answer is “I don’t know” then let’s have a chat about how we can help you solve virtual meeting fatigue for your teams today.
