It has been about 4 months or so since the Covid 19 crisis started mandating that we all stay home or close to it, wear masks and wash our hands a lot. Consequently, many of us are now working from home and using Zoom meetings in the place of in person meetings.

I do not know about you, but I have a good case of “Zoom fatigue.” I am more mentally drained at the end of a day on Zoom than when I used to go to my office. Why? Zoom requires that I “…focus more intently on conversations in order to absorb information. (“How To Combat Zoom Fatigue” by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy, Harvard Business Review (HR) April 29, 2020 at 2.) In an in-person meeting, I can look down at my phone or engage in some other momentary distraction. But on a Zoom meeting, I must continuously look into the camera and stay focused. (Id.)  We are on stage, so to speak. (BBC.com, “The Reason Zoom calls drain your energy” by Manyu Jiang (April 22,2020) (BBC) at 2.) We also have a much harder time reading the non-verbal cues such as body language, facial expressions, tone and pitch of the speaker. And, as we know, non-verbal cues make up over 70% of our communication. Thus, we are forced to use a lot more energy on Zoom to read those cues than if the meeting was in person.

Read original article


Tags: