TGIF

“Zoom Fatigue” Is it real?

  • 29 May 2020
  • 5 replies
  • 420 views

Userlevel 5

Hey everyone! Happy Friday 😊

 

I don’t know about you but lately I’ve been having soooo many video conferencing calls. Back to back. One zoom call to a google hangout to a FaceTime and so on and so on. I completely understand that during this time we’re all trying to stay connected and can feel isolated just being at home but I’ve almost hit a breaking point. 
 

How are all of you handling this? Any tips and tricks? 
 

 


5 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

@Brittni -

if too much time is being spent Zoom’ing for work, then use alternate methods of staying in touch personally such as a phone call or even a safely, physically distanced driveway visit.

And as with everything communications-related, make sure a video conference is the “right” medium to use for a given information sharing need.

Kiron

Userlevel 7
Badge +4

Hey @Brittni I have been very discerning with invites (especially listen-only webinars) and making sure I have enough rest time. I use the Time Out in Mac, set at 30 min intervals.

On the other hand, I can understand that persistent teams may need to meet a lot more on Zoom or other vidcon platforms. This is where leadership/management moves are really important. How do we increase trust and not try to replicate whatever works in the office to the online space :)

Hey @Isman Tanuri - I also love the Time Out app for Mac and have mine set at 30min too!

Our team at Yahoo has been using Circles for Zoom to reduce Zoom fatigue and make our team calls feel lighter weight. It’s especially great for longer calls with just our team because we can all pay attention and feel connected while still getting other work done.

Userlevel 7
Badge +4

That’s a really cool share, @Jack Thompson! I’ve downloaded Circles and going to so how it feels. I’m facilitator and I have many people on my screen a lot of the time. Perhaps this can greatly help with real estate.

I am not sure about “still getting other work done” though. Multi-tasking simply slows one down and introduces low quality work 😂(just my opinion as an Agile something)

Userlevel 1

It is definitely a real thing! I love the suggestions that others have suggested here so far. Circles looks quite interesting. Thank you for that @Jack Thompson.

At a practical level, one small but important thing you can do in your Zoom meetings is to turn off the Gallery view. Maybe just use it when you’re getting started with the call but looking at all of those faces dead-on for an entire meeting can be quite tiring. Use the speaker view to just see who is talking. And when you’re on camera, make sure you’re not facing the screen head-on. It comes off as way too intense. Try to angle your body slightly so that you’re not facing the camera directly. 

I think we are still stuck in the land of Zoom for a while yet, so we need to make the best of it. I hope these ideas help!

 

Reply