Zoom meetings are increasing so are “Zoom Fatigue” mentions on Google searches

Many of us are finding ourselves exhausted by the end of our workday due to video conferencing we weren’t used to; they are actually becoming so draining day after day. The reason why we are feeling less attracted to video conferencing is that it puts us in a setting where we are obliged to stay focused in order to absorb and process all the information being presented.
Of course, we’ve heard the term “work from the comfort of your home” but it is becoming “work with less comfort at your home” especially for those who did not organize a private space or office at home to work from. They constantly find themselves arguing with roommates and family members by getting disturbed from their presence or sometimes finding themselves crawling on the floor to grab their headphones off the dining table. Moreover, we are sitting in front of the Webcam but we’re actually multitasking, answering messages, not taking breaks, and spending long hours in opt-in sessions where we even sometimes don’t know if or when we should intervene, chat, raise our hand, or mute/unmute to ask a question.

The answer is “switch to phone calls or email whenever and wherever you can.”
Hey, I’ll 👋 send you a text message, stay tuned!
Do you mind if I call you at your office tomorrow?
Wouldn’t it be a good idea if I send you an email with all the details related to the decision?
I feel more comfortable if you follow the subject with my assistant.
Wow, I’ll make sure that our lawyer takes notice of that and follow up with you, I’ll tell him to exchange emails with you.
I’ll make sure that we upload an amended copy to our websites, login to our FTP in an hour.
Gee,… I did not know that a telephone ring would fix the problem!,,,,,,!

Professor Tsedal Neeley at Harvard Business School and author of “Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere”, emphasizes that with the pandemic workers at home offices are being pushed to overuse video conferencing platforms like Zoom and a more balanced approach is required. Just because many Canadians work from home does not refer to that they are spending all their time video conferencing in their snow-covered houses. Trust your people when they deliver.
I did a lot of conferences since the inception of video conferencing. During my MBA almost a decade now we employed “anymeeting” but Skype also nailed most of the jobs. Due to time zone differences, I rarely attended sessions during my five years and a half studying a doctorate degree; they were all Adobe recorded sessions and I used to watch them later and most of the interactions with my dissertation chair and adviser were by email or phone calls.
One-to-one interaction is best made over the phone while a one-to-many interaction is best achieved using an asynchronous mode of communication -like emails- when people have to process complex information. To sum, people trust you when you deliver. A synchronous mode of communication like Zoom video conferencing is exhausting because it increases cognitive load through rich media communication. An asynchronous lean communication mode through phone calls and emails is less exhaustive. Do the balance!