To be (on camera), or not to be...
Zoom fatigue is real, y'all, and it apparently has its own Wiki page. Zoom fatigue refers to the tiredness, stress, or burnout associated with spending too much time in virtual meetings. We have what is called nonverbal overload, or the experience we have when we are getting too many nonverbal cues like eye contact, body language, and background imagery.
There are theories about why nonverbal overload exists, including excessive amounts of close-up eye gaze, increased cognitive load, increased self-evaluation, and constraints on physical mobility. Personally, I find cognitive load and self-evaluation interesting because we are hyperattentive to both giving and receiving cues, and constantly aware of how we appear to ourselves and others, which can lead to increased fixation on our appearance and self-criticism. There is some research that shows that it's being on camera, rather than the hours spent in virtual meetings, that is the problem. No matter the reasons, it's exhausting.
But let's be real - even before the pandemic, 67% of employees in one survey indicated that spending too much time in meetings and on calls distracts them from making an impact at work. Virtual meeting platforms have arguably made that worse. According to Gallup, 8 in 10 employees think that virtual meetings are less effective or no different than in-person meetings, and a SurveyMonkey poll showed that 32% of employees think that meetings "could have been an email" all or most of the time.
Virtual meetings cut both ways. One the one hand, they have allowed us greater insight into who our employees and colleagues are as human beings thanks to the appearance of children and pets and home office backgrounds. This builds empathy. But virtual meetings have also allowed employers to squeeze as much as possible out of employees. Anyone else ever have a 6 hour Zoom day? 🙋🏽🙋🏽
I'm writing about this important topic because it's a critical conversation to have when thinking about workplace wellbeing. Virtual meeting culture affects:
Connection & community: if used effectively, virtual meeting tools and platforms can create a sense of belonging among remote or hybrid workers and increase collaboration and productivity.
Work-life harmony: having a choice about how we engage supports our need for flexibility and autonomy.
Mattering at work: respecting who we are as human beings and creating an inclusive culture is a way to teat employees with dignity.
Learn more about workplace wellbeing at the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General.
What boundaries are at play?
Time: the amount of time we spend in virtual meetings and, importantly, how much time we spend on camera. This is going to vary for everyone. I monitored my energy over a couple of months last year, and determined that 10 hours of meetings a week or less is what I'm most comfortable with. I also found that 16 hours of meetings a week felt like a hard boundary for my own mental health.
Physical: virtual meetings require that we be attached to a device, and that can mean long periods of sitting and challenges for people with certain conditions, like ADHD.
Mental: research is clear that virtual meetings affect our ability to focus and that we often multi-task. This can be a huge mental drain, affecting subsequent productivity.
Emotional: having to compromise a boundary can cause us stress, anxiety, and anger, among other feelings. We also may be coming to the table with an emotional challenge. I can't count the number of meetings I was on where people talked about feeling tired or drained before we even started the meeting.
What policies are at play?
Employers can require you to be on camera, but that doesn't mean you don't have rights. Importantly, you should be familiar with the requirements in your:
Job description
Employee handbook
Code of conduct
Remote work conduct or virtual meeting policies
Non-discrimination policies (like your Equal Employment Opportunity Policy)
You may also have workplace wellness policies and Collective Bargaining Agreements that address employee rights. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is an important law to ensure accessibility and respect the mental and physical health of employees. You can leverage these to make sure that you have accommodations that support you to be at your best when conducting virtual work.
Remember, though, that organizational norms can also become policy, creating unwritten expectations around employee behavior. If you are in a management or leadership position, try to use the carrot rather than the stick. We can create healthy and inclusive workplaces without mandating them by working together.
Data supports this - work teams that decide hybrid work policy together have the highest engagement, but the fewest employees benefit from this collaborative approach.
Who is most impacted?
According to one study, women are 2.5 times more likely to experience Zoom fatigue than men.
People with different abilities, including people with vision challenges, ADHD (reduces stimuli and visual distractions), or anxiety, people who hard of hearing, or who need medical care (for example, use of a medical device).
Families - children, parents, and pets all may compete for the attention of a remote worker and setting clear boundaries is important to wellbeing (we have to set boundaries but also as managers have to be responsive to the needs of our employees who are working from home).
Frontline workers who are fully on-site and not remote capable don't get the benefit but deserve flexibility, too. It's important to ensure workplace policies offer the same kind of flexibility and autonomy to these employees.
What you can do with this information
You don't have to be accessible to everyone, all the time. Here are some ways to do that:
Establish expectations for yourself, with your team, and as a team. If you are looking for a job that is the right fit for you, ask about office meeting culture in interviews.
If you are in a management or leadership position, respect autonomy and support how people show up each day.
Perform a meeting audit and determine the cost of meetings by looking at the time, number of employees, and wages or salary for each employee.
Change your default meeting times to be shorter. Why is everyone automatically setting 60 minute meetings? It isn't always necessary.
Respect autonomy and flexibility by building in off-camera time, making camera-free meetings, ensuring transition time between meetings, incorporating stretch or bio breaks, and making social meetings optional.
It's difficult to set boundaries at work, but not impossible. As today's quote reminds us, give yourself permission to create the best working conditions for you. My hope is that we all have the tools to contribute to an inclusive meeting culture that allows us choose to be on camera, or not to be, and respect that choice.