Zoom Fatigue is Real
By Melissa Castan
Over the last year many of us have gone from days with face-to-face meetings to hours of virtual meetings. With accessibility increasing, it seems like more and more meetings are happening via online platforms such as Teams, Webex, and especially Zoom. Tammy McCausland, SROA Editor, recently shared on SROA’s community platform that there is now evidence-based science that “Zoom Fatigue” is real and shared the following interesting articles to prove it:
- The science of "Zoom fatigue"
- Why we're experiencing 'Zoom fatigue' and how to fix it
- 'Zoom fatigue' is taxing the brain. Here's why that happens
- Stanford researcher identify four causes for 'Zoom fatigue' and their simple fixes
SROA’s Connect community offers members a platform to ask each other questions, share ideas, or, as the website says, “connect and collaborate” so we asked our Community members if they or their team have experienced “Zoom fatigue” and what they are doing to combat it. Here are some of the responses:
I have heard from many of my colleagues that they feel the need to be on/available all of the time because people have more time on their hands. I definitely feel like things have not gotten any slower and with the ability to have meetings virtually people have more access to meetings.
-- Maria Grice, Hematology Oncology Associates of CNY
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I do feel like I am more accessible-sometimes in a bad way since it is very easy to be asked to quick get on a call rather than have a meeting put on my calendar ahead of time.
I do find people still struggle w/ the technical aspect-especially when working from home-mics/speakers don't work, cameras don't work, or wi-fi is spotty and people go in and out.
Myself, I find it really hard to "read a group" remotely. It is hard, especially when people don't turn on their cameras, to know when someone is done speaking to add something to the conversation. There is much more "over talking", people speaking over one another. I can't see people's reactions and people can't see mine-which I think is really important in meetings as well.
-- Jana Grienke, MHA, ROCC, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics
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Great question, thank you for sharing these articles. I definitely have been feeling more fatigued these past months, it seems that work in general has become much more intense because of the need to do so many things in a virtual setting. It just seems like a lot more work to me. I do see the benefits of meeting virtually, but having back to back virtual meetings does seem a bit exhausting. I find that I start to lose interest in the discussion when I start to feel tired; I will admit that I find myself becoming distracted as well by the background of others especially if there is a lot of movement going on; which takes a lot more of my energy to refocus.
-- Brenda Marie Palo, University of California Davis Health Comprehensive Cancer Center
Have you, or anyone on your team, experienced Zoom fatigue? How are you handling it?
Share your thoughts here, or login to SROA Connect and join the conversation. If you are not a member of SROA yet, learn more about joining the association serving the niche profession of Radiation Oncology Administrators.
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