NEW WORLD OF WORK

How to overcome Virtual Attention Taxation — ‘Zoom Fatigue’

It’s true. You have spent a long time wishing your employer could be a bit more flexible and now you’re doing it, you’re regretting praying to the IT Infrastructure Gods for so long.

The truth is two-fold. Firstly this isn’t just home-working Nirvana. This bullshit. I’m not only working from home, I’m homeschooling kids, sharing the space with 3 other people 24/7 and can barely leave the building. It feels tough and I know I’m lucky I have a garden and long country walks spitting distance away.

About a week ago I had a team meeting and we did the usual ‘How is everyone?’. I was expecting people to talk about feelings of isolation, lack of motivation and worries about getting unwell. But instead every just said “I’m really tired”, “Were meeting always this exhausting?” and “Can we just have less meetings?”

Aside from the inevitable exhaustion that comes with all of the changes we have been going through recently, video conferencing is tiring. Talking to relatives on FaceTime (other services are available) is tiring. Why? Our brains aren’t made for this.

The problem with video

The simple, unavoidable truth is even though we have adapted hugely as a society to the rapid change…