Navigating Zoom Fatigue in a (Sort-Of) Post-Pandemic World
Like everyone else at the start of the pandemic, my meetings and trainings moved online to Zoom and have mostly stayed there since. One of the main trainings I facilitate is a 1.5-2 hour training on Trauma, ACE’s (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and Trauma recovery. Unlike pre-pandemic, by the time I am done, I feel exhausted. Some of that exhaustion is from talking non-stop and making sure I am engaging people the best I am able. However, I have noticed that my ‘tired-ness’ seems a little more intense on Zoom than in-person. I started listening to colleagues and friends say they felt tired or worn out more frequently. While the pandemic in and of itself is enough to make anyone feel out of it, I started to wonder if the platform itself was adding to the exhaustion. A little bit of Googling later, I discovered Zoom Fatigue is absolutely a real thing. At first I thought I was so clever coming up with ‘Zoom Fatigue’ until I saw that articles have already been written on the subject. Darn. However, I wanted to share some of what I have been researching and let people know that what they were and are experiencing is a real phenomenon.
So why does spending our day on Zoom feel so much more exhausting? There’s multiple factors at play:
In an article written by Libby Sander, an Assistant Professor of ‘Organizational Behavior’ and Oliver Bauman, an Assistant Professor at the School of Psychology, both at Bond University, they explain that in the absence of in-person contact for meetings, we are now staring at boxes of heads that do not allow us to read the non-verbal cues we would in normal settings. Instead, we exert a large amount of energy focusing on the words being said and sustaining eye contact. Also, in-person meetings are very much a ritualistic encounter for most of us that provides some comfort and helps to build and sustain important relationships. Face-to-face meetings provide a way to communicate attitudes and feelings. When these cues are missing, we are at a loss to understand all that the facilitator and the group are trying to express.
Because we only have limited working memory, our brains can only do so many things consciously. All the nonverbal signals such as tone and pitch of our voice, gestures, and posture are mostly automatic and can be done without taking up working memory at the same time processing the cues. Processing predominately verbal cues can be exhausting because we are relying on the verbal information to attempt to understand the emotions being expressed.
Another factor that may get overlooked is that we are trying to manage our environment with plenty to distract us: dogs barking, kids running around, people coming and going. It can be tremendously stressful when the unpredictable happens.
Sitting on our butts for hours at a time without breaks from the computer or other people can also start to take a toll. At least with in-person meeting, we were able to get up, get coffee, yack with a co-worker or physically drive to another location. All of these were good distractions and a break from the grind that are now gone for most of us. We also find ourselves looking at our own face, hair, expressions, and backgrounds adding to the anxiety that would not be there with in-person meetings.
So what can we do about it? Here’s some tips that can help:
Be gentle with yourself around your expectations. Maybe you could do 8 hours of meetings back-to-back pre-pandemic without breaking a sweat and now you can only handle 3 before you’re exhausted for the day. Let that be okay. Quiet the self-critic that labels you a failure or lazy for not being able to handle what you previously did. Remember why it feels the way it does now (this world is much different than it was pre-pandemic) and allow your expectations to shift with the shifting times.
Normalize the question “Does this really need to be a meeting?” More often than not, it could be an email or a quick phone call that doesn’t mean more time on a screen. If it does need to be a meeting, try to keep meetings from being scheduled back to back.
Stop looking at yourself. Who among us hasn’t spent most of a meeting distracted by our own video box fiddling with our hair or wondering if we’ve always used our hands so much to talk. Minimize the box or put a post-it over it so you’re not drawn back to your own reflection. That pull on your focus is an extra-tiring element it can be helpful to eliminate.
Find what you do like about the new, online culture and place your focus there. There are some upsides to our new online living from serious down to silly – and all of them are valid reasons to appreciate the change. People with social anxiety may feel more relaxed in a Zoom meeting than in an in-person meeting. Some social dominant characteristics such as height or other physical factors are mitigated through the screen. No commute. Sweatpants as part of your work attire. A canine coworker who is always happy to see you and never microwaves fish in the office break room.
Move around throughout the day. Get up between meetings. Take a walk around the block. Stand in front of the kitchen window while you sip some coffee. Take your morning meetings at your desk and your afternoon at the kitchen table. Whatever it takes to break of the day a bit more.
Resist the urge to multitask. Put the phone down, close out the extra tabs, and try to focus on one task at a time. When our attention is divided we become much more tired and frazzled by the end of the day. Our brains simply aren’t meant to try to keep track of all of those different tasks at once.
As we continue to find our way through and past the pandemic (and into an increasingly virtual space as a result) we will learn more and create better strategies to help us work, live and connect. Remember, we humans are resilient.
