How to avoid Zoom or Video Meeting fatigue

First of all Zoom fatigue is real. It really is bad for us and it really does negatively effect our mental health. According to the Virtira study of professionals working remotely https://virtira.com/the-webcam-survey-executive-summary, nearly half (49%) reported a high level of Zoom fatigue. As we will see later, those numbers amongst women are much higher. To understand what we can do about it, we first we need to understand the six triggers for Zoom fatigue.

1. Mirror anxiety. Looking at your self for hours is not good for you. There’s a good reason why we don’t wander round with a mirror in front of us. We’d stop noticing what’s right in front of us and we’d also get super self-conscious and aware of our faults.
2.  Rubbish presentations. Yep sometimes what we call ‘zoom fatigue’ has a better more honest phrase called ‘Had Enough of watching shit presentations’. The reason why people are tired is they’ve been watching too many awful presentations.
3. A sense of being physically trapped because of the need to stay within the view of the camera.   In face to face you can move around, stretch, look away etc. That sense of being trapped just isn’t healthy.
4. Being stared at. This refers to the feeling of constantly having peoples' eyes in your field of view. In face to face, the speakers will move their gaze around the audience. But during a video conference, you’re always being stared at. And you’re also being stared at by the audience. Being stared at while speaking, even by digital faces, causes physiological anxiety.
5. The massively increased effort required to manage body language and non-verbal communication during a video call is huge. In face to face we don’t really make much of a conscious effort to read the room, its mostly spontaneous. In video, not only is it harder but we have far less evidence to work with, so our poor old brains go into over-drive.  
6. Having to learn a whole new way of holding a conversation. While in face to face, the gaps between speakers in conversation are roughly 0.2 seconds, in virtual this increases to 0.7. This messes with our brains. It’s just half a second but that half second is the reason why it feels like such hard work. There isn’t the same flow as with face to face.

Women suffer disproportionately

Its clear from the research https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2021-77825-003.html that women suffer disproportionately from this syndrome. Women are more effected than men by mirror anxiety.  They will spend more time looking at themselves and women are more likely to experience negative effects of this.

Women also spend longer attending meetings which increases fatigue and shorter rest times between meetings. Women are also better than men in face to face meetings at reading body language. Consequently they compensate by making an even bigger effort to  read the virtual room.

Some solutions

So here’s some simple techniques for reducing both yours and your teams Zoom fatigue.

1. Better presentations. Better quality, engaging, entertaining, valuable and purposeful presentations will reduce Zoom fatigue.
2. Fewer Zoom meetings. Actually Teams is the greater villain here. But you know what I mean. Would a teleconference or cameras off meeting be the better option? For small groups maybe yes.
3. Encourage movement in your meetings and presentations. Get people up from chairs if they’re able and get them to shake out, move around the room, stretch etc. Bring in activities that force them to look away from their screen. When you’re having team meetings aim for a spontaneous playful environment with lots of laughter.
4. Shorter meetings and gaps between meetings. I remember working with a large corporate where the culture was back to back Teams. Arghh. They brought in a simple decree that there should be a minimum of 5 minutes between meetings. MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE TO MENTAL HEALTH AND QUALITY OF MEETINGS. All it requires is keeping to time and being organised!
5. Hide self view. You can do this simply in Zoom and Teams. It seems a little weird at first as we’re so used to watching ourselves but you soon get used to it.
6. Camera breaks. Its incredibly useful to be able to see people during a presentation; and likewise its useful for them to be seen. However, we don’t need to have our cameras on all the time.

Finally, encourage self care. Mindfulness, relaxation and being human. What does being human mean to you and your team? I would suggest its curiosity, banter, vulnerability and humour. For more tips and tricks check out "Virtual Presentation Mastery." https://amzn.to/3xYAsdO