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Thanks to the global pandemic, many employees were forced to leave their workplaces due to social distancing and take up working from home. Of course, there are any number of online tools that allow employees to keep in touch. Probably one of the most popular of these is the conference app Zoom. What's interesting is that, with its now almost constant use, some employees have been suffering from the emerging phenomena of “Zoom fatigue.” Though this is named after a particular video conferencing tool, it affects many users who use their laptop camera to communicate. You can look upon zoom fatigue as a form of mental exhaustion from spending long hours in virtual meetings. As of writing, this is an ongoing issue and individuals are now starting to give some thought into its origins, as well as how to combat it on a daily level. Interestingly enough, the antidote for Zoom fatigue may be….more Zoom!
It does seem a strange idea to cure the patient with yet more of the illness. But before we delve into this, we should take a minute to try and understand exactly what is causing this problem. Only by getting to the root of the cause, can we hope to find a viable cure.
The first factor we should try to understand is what is causing this video meeting fatigue. Researchers at Stanford University have identified a number of contributing factors. It appears that the most obvious one of these is the cognitive burden of having to be constantly on camera. Most workers are content to be left alone to get on with the tasks at hand. But having to be constantly aware of the ever-present camera is not something that many employees have encountered before the Covid-19 pandemic. It creates the unnatural feeling of being the centre of attention, even when one isn't aware of being on screen. For more introverted personalities, this can prove to be both emotionally taxing and exhausting. After all, it's like having to perform in front of an audience that you cannot switch off.
The researchers also noticed that another factor to take into account is the effect from staring directly into someone's face as they talk on screen. This gives the appearance of intense eye contact as we are staring at our tiny laptop camera lens. In the real world, when we do speak to colleagues and friends, we do not do so with our faces centimetres away from theirs. And we do not do this for hours at a time. The Stanford study pointed to the fact that having someone's face so close to our own will trigger a natural flight or fight response. Obviously, that's not the mind-set for someone taking part in a long meeting with your team. On a practical level, you should try imagining conducting in-person meetings like this, where everyone is directly staring at everyone else. It's unnatural and creates a nagging subconscious tension.
When working from home, there is an almost unwritten rule that many employees feel. It’s that they are somehow meant to show they are working harder than they would normally do in the office environment. Because they are under a microscope, with the feeling that a manager is constantly watching them, as well as recording their productivity. Within the office environment and the day-to-day running of a business, there are enough deadlines, stresses and pressures. Now if you consider all of those taking place under a microscope, then it's no surprise that employees start to feel a downward pressure. This can lead to questions about self-worth coupled with forms of depression.
Through our long history of playing escape room games at ExitTheRoom, we have devised a solution thanks to escape room gameplay. What's noticeable is that during a game, the players are not focusing on each other, but rather on the clues. All their attention goes towards solving the challenges in front of them. As such, the focus will always be on the puzzles and clues and not all the people. So it follows that by removing the constant face-to-face contact, which is a burden from many people, we should be able to let people relax more as they will no longer feel they are the unnatural centre of attention. In many ways, this is reflected in the advice given by the Stanford researchers. They suggest that all businesses should incorporate some off camera interaction. This will act as a reprieve from the pressure of face-to-face video communications.
Whilst doing an escape room game, it's noticeable that simply by tackling puzzles as a team, it gives each individual the opportunity to reset their brains. We're not saying that playing in an escape room is going to be a mental walk in the park. You will have to utilise the logic and thinking parts of your mind. But we suggest that using different brain functions other than those you would normally use in video meetings, will give you a mental rest. In other words, by utilising communication, but without any self consciousness, then you will not feel any pressure and it will lead you to be able to work with a team seamlessly. In terms of physical exercise, it's a bit like considering this new exercise as leg day. And we know how often everybody skips leg day!
The idea that an employee needs to be on camera whilst they are working is a failure on the part of a company's management as it inherently implies a lack of trust. This is not the best message to send to employees, especially if you want them to work hard for the business. It's important to have faith in your employees and to give them the freedom to get on with whatever tasks they have at hand. To that end we suggest using Zoom and other conference apps as a means of catching up, not just for the former purpose of holding meetings. And it's important that any camera time should be pre-planned both in terms of when and the duration of the interaction. Other than that, the camera should be turned off.
