How To Reduce Stress And Burnout By Alleviating Employee Zoom Fatigue
As virtual Zoom chats pile up in and out of the workplace, stress and burnout are being impacted. While burnout is characterized by prolonged periods of stress leading to mental, emotional and physical exhaustion, work-life integration plays a big part in all three. Now that we're social distancing and using video conferencing for almost everything, the lines of neuro association between work and home are being blurred. Harvard sleep experts recommend not using your bedroom for activities outside of sleep and intimacy for that same reason; it becomes harder to switch off and unwind.
While video calls have their place in remote work, we need not add to the burnout and stress epidemic. As these guidelines from the World Health Organization suggest, it's wise to take healthy breaks from the coronavirus pandemic every now again. For many, another video call brings about negative associations.
People who are insecure or uncomfortable with their appearance or concerned about the setup of their remote work environment may feel pressured by video calls. There's also the fact of presentism where people feel like they need to have their video on so it doesn't' t seem like there non-compliant or hiding something. A study by the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies found that transmission delays of 1.2 seconds, made the interlocutor seem less attentive, friendly, and disciplined than if a delay wasn't experienced.
According to this article by the Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, the concept of gaze awareness is when those communicating are well aware of the other's gaze direction. During video communication, we lose the typical gaze and facial expressions like attention, irritability, connection and disagreement. DeAnne Aussem, Leadership Development and Wellbeing Leader at PwC, says, "we all need to work a bit harder to focus when we're on video."
DeAnne also believes that another critical element in how video chats affect physical and psychological energy is the fact that, when "we're attending back to back virtual meetings, we're often not moving — not walking or bumping into friendly faces. Missing out on these seemingly simple elements of wellbeing can take a physical, mental, and emotional toll without us even realizing it." According to Aussem, when implementing video chats, "it's important to consider a team check-in or check-out where the question is, "How are you feeling?" Our emotions fuel the quality of our energy and how we show up, and it can be harder to decipher that on video calls, so it's important to ask the question directly."
Here are five ways to help alleviate employee video conference fatigue.
Don't overdo communication
Communicate from a place of calmness, and it will shine through. Also, always seek to be understood, use language that reflects your corporate culture, respect your reader's time and make your messaging resonate with psychological needs.
Often ask yourself, is this message being delivered at the right time, in the right way, and is there anything in my control that will hinder employees from positively receiving it.
Trust your employees
According to Pew Research addressing the state of American's trust in each other amid the COVID-19 pandemic, 35% believe that people can't be trusted and look out for themselves. Less than a third at 29% believe people are fair and can be trusted, and 32% fall in the middle. The findings showed that the less interpersonal trust people have, the more frequently they experience bouts of anxiety, depression and loneliness. Trust people to do their job and don't micromanage so you can stay healthy. Remember, too, when we trust, we tend not to over-communicate.
Vary communication
According to Doodle's 2019 State of Meetings report, meetings that aren't effectively organized cost $399 billion in the U.S, and the cost in 2019 was $58 billion in the U.K. How do you effectively organize something that doesn't' t even need to be done? You can't, authentically. Instead, communicate via succinct emails, through project collaboration software tools like Slack or pick up the phone and call.
Willis Towers Watson, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company, share these ideas on how to use traditional and non-traditional crisis communication methods:
Keeping employees informed about emerging or urgent matters via text message
Real-time updates on microsites and portals to employees and families
Providing targeted and personalized messaging for employees
Digital signage, banners or web ads on intranets
Lead with sensitivity and empathy, but first, cultivate those characteristics so you can show that you're genuine. Whatever platform you choose, the goal is to contribute to your employee experience in a positive way.
Consider your employees
If you don't understand your employees, they will find someone who does. Where are your team members in their employee journey? New employees expectedly may need more time in video calls. Someone familiar with the job and contributing at different levels may not. Also, think about whether the job functions require mainly individual input, or are they performed best with collaboration and interaction. Personality is another aspect to be mindful of too. Extroverts have commonly been referred to as solar panels as they recharge based on external stimuli, while introverts are known to be like rechargeable batteries. An extrovert may prefer more video calls, whereas introverts may not.
Whatever we're doing in the space of HR, learning and development or organizational development, we need to take career growth and what helps people thrive in their careers into account.
Be mindful of what causes career burnout
The bottom line is, we can't help alleviate something if we don't understand it. I'll split what an employee generally needs to avoid career burnout into two categories.
In their personal lives:
Quality sleep
Work-life integration
A lifestyle which allows for planned and unplanned self-care
A resilient character as well as the ability to say no
A well-developed sense of self-awareness
From work:
Work that isn't monotonous
Feeling like they can bring their authentic selves to work. I previously wrote about the concept of emotional tax and being on guard.
Clarity around expectations and goals – what we're talking about now, communication
Adequate support to do their work
Purposeful alignment with your corporate values and their work (career fit)
There is a silver lining to all of this COVID-19 related stress and fatigue. If we can emerge stronger from the pandemic, there's no telling the impact that we'll have in our industries, society and world. Make sure your organization is ready with your most valuable asset – your people.
This article was first published on Forbes.