By The Muse EditorsThese 14 Companies Are Hiring in August8 Tips to Fight Zoom Fatigue (Because All Those Video Meetings Are Exhausting)
If you’ve been working remotely for any amount of time, chances are you’ve experienced some kind of “Zoom fatigue.”
We probably don’t need to explain it to you, but just in case: The phrase Zoom fatigue refers to “an overall sense of being drained after a long day of assorted video meetings,” says Tammy Allen, a professor and the director of industrial-organized psychology at the University of South Florida. The phenomenon isn’t specific to Zoom, a video conferencing platform that quickly evolved into an eponymous noun—and, for some, even a verb—referring to any kind of video meeting. Whether it’s Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, or any other kind of virtual conferencing, spending your working hours on these platforms can be an energy suck.
A study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology pinpointed factors such as lack of belonging and late-in-the-day meetings as major contributors to Zoom fatigue. “We had participants respond to hourly surveys over the course of five days,” says one of the study authors, Emily Campion, who’s an assistant professor of management at Old Dominion University. “We have strong evidence that the meetings cause fatigue.”
There are a number of specific aspects of video conferencing that led to exhaustion, according to a study published in the journal Technology, Mind, and Behavior by Jeremy Bailenson, a communication professor at Stanford University. They are (feel free to nod your head knowingly): the consistent (and unnaturally close-up) eye contact; the cognitive load associated with trying to connect without many of the non-verbal cues we use in person and attempting to interpret body language through the screen; the consequences of staring at yourself all day; and, finally, the lack of physical movement.
It’s not all bad news, though. There are several ways to prevent Zoom fatigue from ruining your day. Since remote and hybrid work setups are here to stay, it’s worth trying out at least a few of these strategies to reduce the Zoom gloom.
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