EMCR Agony Aunt

Q

Dear Agony Aunt,

Spending seven hours on Zoom calls is starting to make me want to claw my eyes out and fill my teacup with spiked hot chocolate. How do I deal with Zoom fatigue? Besides my ‘obligatory’ attendance at group meetings, department meetings, supervisor meetings … there’s so much fun stuff to attend that I just don’t have the energy to click ‘Join Meeting’ anymore! What do I do?

From,

Tired Zoomer.

A

Hi Tired Zoomer,

First, let’s all remember Zoom meetings are real meetings. Just because we might only be professionally dressed from the waist up and in our trackies from the waist down, it doesn’t mean you can or should be able to function back to back and non-stop on Zoom all day. Make sure you are scheduling breaks to transition between meetings, just like you would if you had to physically move between rooms, buildings or campuses. You need that time to mentally decompress, tinkle, breathe and clear your head.

Second, remember that Zoom meetings are so different from face-to-face meetings. In a boardroom, meeting room or office you don’t all sit intensely face to face with eyes locked on each other for the whole meeting, so don’t try and do that on Zoom either. Also, on Zoom our brains do need to work harder because we don’t have the same body language cues we have IRL—so give yourself a break. Insist on agendas, breaks and shorter meetings (if you are in a position to do so).

Solutions, strategies—there’s a few things to try:

1. Block out time on your calendar as ‘no meetings’ time—this helps if your colleagues are using your electronic diary to schedule meeting times.
2. Say ‘no’. Crazy, I know! You can try asking the organiser to send notes or a recording instead. 2020 is the year to make that meeting (that could have been an email) an actual gosh-darn email (or even a good old-fashioned phone call).
3. Hide the self-view of your own camera. First check you are visible and your lighting isn’t awful, and then hide that view. After all, you don’t have a mirror in front of you in your face-to-face meetings—well, I don’t think you do!
4. Multi-task, or don’t—this is going to depend on the meeting type. If you really need to be on, close all your other windows to avoid distraction. If it’s the kind of meeting that you just have to be seen at, then go ahead and multitask, just remember to mute to avoid those keyboard clickety-clacks.
5. Sit further away from your screen! There’s some research that suggests we respond on Zoom as if we are actually that close IRL. That’s too close for the office, that’s your personal space. Sit back from the screen and it suddenly feels less full on, more normal. It’s something to do with hormones apparently!

If all else fails: sit really still, pretend to be frozen, and then say you have unstable internet and need to turn off your camera!

Yours in “YOU’RE ON MUTE” solidarity, 

Agony Aunt.