Are you feeling Zoom Burnout?

While working from home has long been a sought-after perk for some employees, a new reality of frequent online meetings and an inability to disconnect from the job has created a new stressor called Zoom burnout. Workplace burnout is nothing new, but this new digital version has its own idiosyncrasies.

Here’s what you need to know to identify digital workplace burnout and four tips to help you prevent it.

What is Zoom burnout, and why does it occur?

Now that your employees are remote workers, chances are good that your team is attending more meetings than ever. While it may not seem like a lot to commit to regular online meetings for work, it’s common for them to contribute to an overarching sense of fatigue. Some of that stems from the fact that our computer screens naturally cause eye strain over time. Since we’re all sitting in front of our computers for at least eight hours each day, that eye strain can be a factor before an online meeting even starts.

According to a recent article that I read, in addition to the technological strain that comes with working on a computer for hours at a time, human social interactions also suffer when participating in an online meeting. One of the areas in which online meetings hamper social interactions is the inability to easily read facial expressions and body language. While video conferencing is a helpful tool, it’s not always helpful in facilitating effective communication.

While the often-impersonal aspects of online meetings can cause mental and emotional exhaustion, the technology’s ease of use can also contribute to an inflation in the number of work-related meetings. Too many meetings were already a stressor in some workplaces, and some workers now feel like they’re required to attend even more meetings, leading to increased stress as they juggle work and at-home responsibilities.

Identifying Zoom burnout

If you’re wondering if your workday malaise or your employees’ disengagement in meetings stems from a form of Zoom burnout, there are some ways to see if this “new normal” is adding to your workplace stress.

While not a specific medical diagnosis, job burnout syndrome is an occupational phenomenon that can affect a person’s mental health. You can identify burnout by asking yourself some key questions about how you feel about your job.

Determining whether you’re overly cynical at work or finding it hard to get started with your day can be common symptoms of workplace burnout. A general sense of disillusion or a lack of satisfaction can also be warning signs.

If you’re generally experiencing typical burnout symptoms like exhaustion, energy depletion, depression, cynicism, excessive stress levels or anxiety, you may want to get help from a health professional.

In terms of Zoom burnout, however, you may want to consider whether the prospect of jumping onto another online work meeting conjures up negative feelings. If that’s the case, it may be because your past meetings weren’t as productive as you may have hoped.

A lack of key decisions or clear deliverables following team meetings results in employees feeling like the meeting was a waste of time and could have been handled in email or other communications. These early signs point to larger failures as projects stall out or encounter problems the team has difficulty overcoming and it signals a leader who is desperate to keep the team connected through Zoom.

The Mayo Clinic also suggests that some possible causes for job burnout include some external factors, including things like a general lack of control, workplace dysfunction, extremes of activity, and a work-life imbalance. All of those indicators can point back to the general upheaval that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought upon the world, as well as the massive changes we’re all feeling while working from home.

How to avoid Zoom burnout

Though most of us are now on video conferencing platforms like Zoom to conduct business meetings, it doesn’t mean that everyone should have to burn out in short order.

To avoid stressing out your employees, the following tips can help you maintain a productive team and foster a healthy work-life balance for your remote workers:

1. Use other forms of communication.

In the grand scheme of things, digital video conferencing is a new way for teams to communicate. If you need to share information, you can always return to email, phone calls or other methods of communication. Web conferencing and chat aren’t practical for every problem that emerges in the work-from-home environment. It’s critical that business leaders and managers rethink the fundamental tools needed to keep employees connected while working at home. This means looking beyond proven video conferencing platforms and acknowledging that as folks are remote, not everything can be accomplished using the same tool.

2. Don’t force video interaction.

If online video conferencing is the only way you feel you can properly convey your message, then make the work environment more relaxed by easing up on requiring that your employees show their faces as well. Letting people participate without needing to transmit their image can ease some of the stress. As a leader, try to set the example and be on video yourself, but if others don’t join you, don’t punish them for it.

3. Understand that life can get in the way.

Thanks to the pandemic, your workers are likely juggling work and childcare. As a result, you should be flexible if things don’t work out when trying to set up or run a meeting. If you hear kids

in the background, don’t get embarrassed or annoyed, rather lean into it and use it as an opportunity to get to know each other better, and occasionally get those kids into the call.

4. Find other approaches to video.

If you absolutely need a way to keep tabs on your employees or want to show solidarity in your new work-from-home realities, try finding alternative ways to keep connected.