Are All the Virtual Meetings Grinding You Down? A Look At “Zoom Fatigue”

If there’s one thing the past couple of years have taught us, it’s that meeting spaces don’t have to be limited to the confines of the traditional office. Practically overnight, meetings switched from conference rooms to Zoom, Teams, Slack, and Google Meet rooms. 

Before, employees and managers could simply walk to their colleagues’ cubicles or offices as needed to ask questions or discuss projects. Now, it requires setting an agenda and coordinating meetings or playing phone tag. 

While the way meetings took place shifted, the need to come together to collaborate, discuss project progress, and tackle workplace challenges remained unchanged. In fact, the number of meetings actually increased in many cases–a 2021 study from Virtira Consulting found that 63% of remote workers participated in more meetings online than they would have in the office, with 30% spending 2-3 hours a day meeting on camera. 

Unfortunately, the virtual environment strips away much of the context necessary in order to gain the full benefit of meetings: the lack of nonverbal cues and eye contact, along with the multiple faces crowding the screen (including your own) can be distracting and even stressful. 

The increased concentration and mental processing required of virtual meetings while simultaneously thinking and communicating is fatiguing. Not only that, but the planning involved in setting up and attending meetings adds a new layer of stress. In addition, the job becomes more sedentary when employees are trapped in their seats all day for online meetings. 

The Virtira study found that 49% of professionals working remotely reported a high degree of exhaustion as a direct result of numerous daily video calls. Employers’ attempts to raise morale by hosting online happy hours, pizza parties, and so on increased the amount of “Zoom time” even more outside of meetings. 

An early 2022 report from Pew Research noted that 56% of workers who say their jobs can be done mainly from home report frequently using online platforms to connect with coworkers. While most of these workers reported that they are fine with the amount of time they spend on video calls, about one in four said they are worn out by it. 

Herein lies the problem–while management may see video calls as a means of increasing team engagement, employees don’t necessarily agree. The Virtira study found that over a quarter of remote workers felt pressured to keep their cameras on even if not required. In addition, 58% of self-identified introverts and 40% of extroverts reported on-camera exhaustion. 

There’s good news though: researchers have been busy searching for ways to fight virtual meeting fatigue. A 2021 study released by communication professor Jeremy Bailenson, founder of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, listed four solutions to common issues: 

• Are you tired of seeing a bunch of faces close-up? Take Zoom out of the full-screen option and reduce the size of the Zoom window relative to the monitor to minimize face size. Using an external keyboard also allows an increase in the personal space bubble between oneself and the grid.
• Do you have the unsettling feeling that you’re looking in a mirror? Select the “hide self-view” button, which you can access by right-clicking your own photo, after you make sure your face is framed properly on screen. 
• Trapped at your desk for hours and hours? Think about the background of the room you’re videoconferencing in, taking into consideration the placement of the camera and whether an external keyboard can help create distance or flexibility. An external camera farther from the screen will allow you to pace around the room and doodle in virtual meetings like you might in real ones. Turning one’s video off periodically during meetings can be a good ground rule to set for groups as well. A good pair of Bluetooth headphones can also provide a little more room to roam. 
• Is the cognitive load too much during long stretches of meetings? Give yourself an “audio only” break. Bailenson recommends that you not only turn off your camera, but also turn your body away from the screen for a few minutes in order to give yourself a break from constantly trying to interpret fellow virtual attendees’ nonverbal cues. 

Suggestions offered by other experts include avoiding multitasking, building in breaks, and switching to phone calls and email as needed. 

Virtual meetings don’t have to be all business either–teams can increase engagement with icebreakers at the beginning of virtual meetings such as “Meet the Pets,” “Show and Tell,” and light discussions about anything from the latest weird news stories people have seen to must-watch movies and TV shows. 

Another way to break up the monotony of meetings and to keep team members engaged is by incorporating polling as a means of checking for understanding or soliciting opinions. Information on creating Zoom polls can be found here. 

The use of reactions during discussions can also liven up meetings. Instead of voicing responses, symbols such as thumbs up, a surprised face, hand clapping, and so on can signal your responses without having to say a word. 

A University of Colorado blog post suggests an additional creative idea for breaking up the monotony of virtual meetings: leaving the camera off and taking the meeting outside. Instead of a desk-based meeting, try a virtual walking meeting using headphones and cell phones. 

With video conferencing likely becoming a permanent fixture in the business world, it’s important to focus on the mental and physical needs of all team members in order to create a more pleasant, stress-free workplace whether it’s in-person or remote. The workplace may never be the same again, after all–adaptation is the key to success.