Zoom Burnout Is Real â but Itâs Worse for Women.
In a new study, women reported higher levels of fatigue associated with video calls than men. The solution, though, isnât as simple as not having video calls.
Credit.Chiara Zarmati
April 13, 2021Updated 4:02 p.m. ET
âWhen weâre feeling exhausted right now, how full is our emotional or mental tank to begin with?â
â Emily Falk, professor of communication, psychology and marketing at the University of Pennsylvania
In Her Words is available as a newsletter.
.
In March, a year into the pandemic, Jane Fraser, the chief executive of Citigroup, made a new workplace rule: no video calls on Fridays.
In case you missed it: Why video calls are so exhausting.
by Stephen Jones
Zoom fatigue has become an uncomfortable reality for many during the pandemic. But what exactly causes back-to-back video calls to feel so much more exhausting than a day of face-to-face meetings?
Jeremy Bailenson, Stanford University professor of communication and founder of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab, has sought to find out. In a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal
Technology, Mind and Behaviour, Bailenson identifies four underlying reasons.
One is an overload of “close distance eye gaze.” Essentially we’re forced to stare directly at people for hours on end, using a technology that was originally reserved for conversations with close acquaintances. The size of the screen and inability to look away in the same way we would do when sharing an intimate space like a lift can add to the discomfort.
G
EORGINA IS IN no hurry to get back to the office. The 37-year-old, who works in financial services in Geneva, has been working from home for most of the past year. Doing so allowed her to skip her commute, wear tracksuit bottoms and avoid awkward conversations about her pregnancy. She is now on maternity leave but her colleagues are trickling back into the office. Meetings all still take place via Zoom; her colleagues dial in individually from their desks so those working from home do not feel excluded. But Georgina worries that, as restrictions ease, people will rush back to their pre-pandemic ways and that working from home will once again be the exception.
Coming to a headset near you, a chance to walk among ‘ghosts’
Soon you could be walking in a street in London next to your best friend, who at the same time is walking with you in Sydney, Australia
5 April 2021 • 4:00pm
Call it holoportation. Call it telepresence. Call it the Zoom of tomorrow or the Star Wars Jedi council room of today, but one man who has experienced it insists that beaming digital versions of ourselves around the world is now very real and very thrilling.
“The first time I saw a realistic avatar beamed into my physical space,” says Prof Jeremy Bailenson, “and his feet were on the floor and his eyes followed my gaze as I walked around the room, my jaw dropped. I said: ‘This is it’.”
A Pandemic Winner: How Zoom Beat Tech Giants To Dominate Video Chat kcrw.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kcrw.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.