Commentary: Let’s face it. Zoom meetings are exhausting
Also, in face-to-face meetings we rely heavily on non-verbal cues to make emotional judgements, such as assessing whether a statement is credible. We automatically take in information such as, is the person fidgeting?
Predominantly relying on verbal information to infer emotions is tiring.
WHAT IF THE KIDS RUN IN?
We feel anxious about our remote workspace and controlling events that might make us look bad to our colleagues. Will my Zoom background suddenly fail leaving my hoarding tendencies on full display?
And none of us want to be like Trinny Woodall, fashion guru and television presenter, who was doing a live stream when her partner walked naked across the room. READ: Commentary: ‘BBC Dad’ has learnt a thing or two about working from home
NO WATER COOLER CATCH-UPS
In person, we often meet people on the way to a meeting to catch up on issues or discuss our views before going in. We get coffee, and the simple act of relocating to a different room is energising.
But at home, we might be just working on a task and then we get on to Zoom, often without taking breaks. READ: Commentary: Putting in 50 hours while WFH, it’s a struggle to draw the line between work and home (Photo: Unsplash/Tran Mau Tri Tam)
Also, walking is known to improve creativity, highlighting the importance of discussions while walking to meetings, moving around during the meeting, and holding the now popular stand-up meetings. But we can’t walk on Zoom calls.
And where we meet matters. The physical environment acts as a cognitive scaffold – we attribute certain meanings to meeting rooms and this subtly changes our behaviour. This can include anchors to important topics such as creativity and problem-solving.
ADDITIONAL STRESSORS
The heightened emphasis on facial cues and the ability to see oneself, can also act as a stressor. Viewing our own negative facial expressions (like anger and disgust) can lead to more intense emotions than when viewing similar facial expressions in others.
Moreover, silence in a video call makes you anxious about the technology. In real-life conversation, silence is important and creates a natural rhythm – but even a 1.2 second delay in responding online made people perceive the person talking as less friendly or focused.
In addition, frustration with people turning their microphones on and off, lagging connections and background noise mean the meeting rarely flows as smoothly. READ: Commentary: COVID-19 is reshaping what work looks like
NOT ALL ZOOM AND DOOM
On the upside, social anxiety is positively correlated with feelings of comfort online. So for people who dread physical meetings, meeting online might be a welcome respite.
And even though the increased focus on verbal information in video meetings can be mentally more draining, it might also have some potential positive side effects by reducing biases due to social and emotional signals.
For instance, certain physical factors are linked to social dominance, such as height. But these factors are less apparent in video meetings, which could lead to increased emphasis on the merits of arguments. READ: Commentary: How not to be a Zoom bore (Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
With predictions that the new workplace “normal” will be very different from the old one, it seems that Zoom is here to stay. There are a number of steps we can take to reduce the negative effects of online video meetings.
First, consider whether the meeting needs to happen. In some cases, shared document platforms with detailed comments can reduce the need to meet.
Limiting the number of Zoom meetings in a day can assist, as well as using messaging and email.
Sometimes, the phone is better. On the phone we only have to concentrate on one voice and can walk around which can help thinking. BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
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Libby Sander is Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the Bond Business School, Bond University. Oliver Bauman is Assistant Professor at the School of Psychology, Bond University. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation. Source: CNA/el
