Editor's Note: This post is part of our "Cartoon Coffee Break" series. While we take talent management seriously, we also know it's important to have a good laugh. Check back regularly for a new ReWork cartoon.
You’ve probably felt the symptoms of "Zoom fatigue" or "Zoom burnout": sore eyes, lack of focus, blurred vision, overall exhaustion and even migraines. Caused by too much time on video conference calls, it’s a condition that first surfaced in the early months of the pandemic. And these video calls are still wearing us out.
In a November 2020 study, 44% of professionals in the U.S. said they have been experiencing video call fatigue since the start of the pandemic, and 26% noted that the practicality and novelty of videoconferencing has worn off. And these symptoms are being felt everywhere: According to a study from the World Economic Forum, workers around the world are fighting video call fatigue.
Still, with remote work continuing into 2021, the time to take control of video fatigue is now. Both managers and employees can employ simple tactics to make a difference.
Managers: Fight Employee Burnout with Better Meetings
The shorter and more concise meetings are, the less time employees have to spend on video calls. Creating an agenda is a great way to keep everyone on track. Limiting the number of participants on a call can also make video meetings more engaging and productive: Only invite individuals who will have something to offer to the conversation or who have a stake in its outcome. And keep an eye out for meetings that can be phone calls or video-optional to cut down on the need to be on camera. Being on face-to-face video calls can quickly get exhausting and require more focus, since people have to process non-verbal cues faster or maintain a certain tone or expression in order to emote effectively.
Managers can also encourage employees to create "meeting-free" blocks of time on their work calendars to try to limit the hours they’re invited to video calls.
Employees: Prioritize More Work-Life Balance—Even in Small Doses
"Take more breaks." Employees have been hearing this advice since the early days of the pandemic, and it’s no less important now. According to a study by BBC Worklife, taking microbreaks (just a few minutes at a time) can increase productivity and reduce work from home burnout. The study also recommends that employees step away from their computer screens every hour to move around—or, at the very least, get away from screens to rest and recharge.
Managing Video Fatigue In 2021
Video calls are part of our "new normal." It’s all the more important, therefore, that companies learn to recognize video fatigue and find ways to address it among their teams.
For more tips on managing remote employees in the year ahead, check out this ReWork article where Summer Salomonsen, the Head of Cornerstone Studios, shares how she learned to meet the needs of her newly-remote team.
Related Resources
Want to keep learning? Explore our products, customer stories, and the latest industry insights.
Customer Story
Upping the game across the entire end-to-end employee experience au
The myCareer team in the NSW Department of Customer Service (DCS) is the creator, administrator and proud guardian of a platform providing People & Culture support to seven diverse ‘clusters’ of government agencies — each with its own unique interface and expectations. From a starting point of multiple, unintegrated systems and time-consuming, error-prone manual processes, the team used Cornerstone to digitise the entire employee lifecycle — from finding and recruiting talent through onboarding, performance management, learning and offboarding.
Blog Post
Announcing the 2020 Cornerstone RAVE Award Winners
On behalf of the Cornerstone team, I’m excited to share details about this year’s Cornerstone RAVE Award winners. RAVE stands for Remarkable Achievements and Visionary Elites, a designation to recognise and honour organisations that have developed and implemented innovative approaches to using our solutions.
Blog Post
Cornerstone Originals — It's our first birthday!
Just about a year ago, we launched our first-ever Cornerstone Originals learning series — Digital Native Advancement (DNA) — and watched with excitement as our customers took it and ran! DNA embodied everything we wanted in our flagship Cornerstone Original. It was innovative and strategic, but it also captured our goal of amplifying a trending topic in a new way. And that type of innovation doesn’t come easy.