All of this can lead to increased stress, a constant sense of needing to be “on” and “available,” less physical exercise or movement, and less downtime or “transitional” space to relax the mind in between meetings. Overlapping https://remotemode.net/ dialogue is nearly impossible in many video conference platforms, so the rhythm of conversation can feel unnatural. Spontaneous flow of information can be lost since people have to wait to speak their turn.
The reality is that virtual work involves a great deal of staring at computers, and there is very little workaround for this fact. One of the best ways to avoid remote work fatigue is to mindfully set up the home office for maximum support. To solve the work from home blues, the first step is to diagnose the cause of the upset. While colleagues in traditional offices tend to have similar working environments, virtual coworkers can have vastly different home office spaces. Each work from home setup is unique, and the cause of a virtual work slump may be the result of an element of the environment.
Avoid multitasking
“Seeing yourself during a video conference is the equivalent in the real world of somebody following you around with a mirror constantly. There’s a lot of research showing that there are negative emotional consequences of seeing yourself in a mirror. Computer and other digital device screens emit blue light, which is processed by the photoreceptors in the back of our eyes and keeps us alert and can create eye fatigue, Feldman said. Mirror anxiety refers to the unease of seeing your video image displayed on your computer screen during a video conference call. “Because you’re looking at an object close up for an extended period of time, you may be able to feel the strain in your eyes and also a little bit of a headache,” Feldman said. Zoom fatigue symptoms range from physical ailments such as eye strain and headaches to psychological issues like anxiety.
Many people now feel a tendency to treat video as the default for all communication. But a video call is fairly intimate and can even feel invasive in some situations. For example, if you’re asked to do a career advice call and you don’t know the person you’re talking to, sticking to phone is often a safer choice. If your client FaceTimes you with no warning, it’s OK to decline and suggest a call instead. In part, it’s because they force us to focus more intently on conversations in order to absorb information.
Reduce Blue Light Exposure
When people are on a video call, everyone’s attention is on the speaker. If you are the speaker, this can make you hyper-aware of how you are looking and can even cause you to worry about your appearance. You may become preoccupied with your “flaws” and may be concerned about these flaws becoming more apparent through the camera lens. Although you may feel inclined to say yes to every work request and assignment, you should know that it is okay to say no sometimes.
If you’re finding that you’re more exhausted at the end of your workday than you used to be, you’re not alone. Over the past few weeks, mentions of “Zoom fatigue” have popped up more and more on social media, and Google searches for the same phrase have steadily increased since early March. “The easiest fix is to make it so the self-mode is not so prominent,” says Jeremy Bailenson, a lead author on the SSRN study and the founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab.