Canadian HR Reporter

N E W S 8 www.hrreporter.com Understanding 'Zoom fatigue' and how to embrace the potential Since the start of the pandemic, people have complained about the strains of video calls. Stanford University researchers say there are several explanations for the fatigue — and possible fixes, writes Sarah Dobson "IT can be really powerful… I love Zoom," says Jeff Hancock, Harry and Norman Chandler professor of communications at Stanford University. "It has allowed me to stay in touch with my family and friends in Canada that I literally can't go visit [and] I have my research team that I haven't seen Intense eye contact Normally, when people interact, eye contact "is very much like a dance," says Hancock. That means if they're in a small group or talking one on one, people look at each other but also look away. "We're not used to having people staring at us all the time. And this is a situation we're calling now 'hyper gaze' — once you have a bunch of people that are on your screen in front of you, espe- cially if you're in a large meeting, they all seem to be staring at you all the time, even if you're not the speaker," he says. "The reason that's important is it can feel like we're in a situation of fight or flight… It's either really intimate or really aggressive, and that raises our physiological awareness, and our physi- ological systems get engaged. And, over time, that can be really tiring." At an in-person meeting, people can look down or doodle, but there's a greater sense of being watched when there's a camera on you on Zoom, says Catherine Mondloch, a psychology professor and director of the Face in a year, but we've all managed to stay productive and relatively healthy, and Zoom and other video platforms are a huge part of staying connected and being social." However, there are downsides to the medium that can lead to "Zoom fatigue," says Hancock, who co-lead a Zoom fatigue project with Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab. In examining the psychological conse- quences of spending hours per day on these platforms, the study "Nonverbal Overload: A Theoretical Argument for the Causes of Zoom Fatigue" in Technology, Mind and Behaviour outlines four possible explanations for Zoom fatigue: excessive amounts of close-up eye gaze; cognitive load; increased self-evaluation from staring at video of oneself; and constraints on physical mobility. To that end, by looking at possible solutions, the researchers hope to "opti- mize the benefits by minimizing the costs and the harms," says Hancock. Perception Lab at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. "When you're in these meetings where everybody's got their camera on, I think some of the fatigue comes from that sense of having to be attentive every moment," she says. "You can set up Zoom so that you've got that speaker view, but if you set up with the gallery view, then nobody gets that downtime, those brief moments where you feel like it doesn't matter what your facial expression is or if your head's down." Online meetings can also be problem- atic because people are looking at their screen, not their camera, she says. "That's one of the challenges that we all face in those meetings is getting past the experience of people not looking at us while they're speaking." But video has its benefits, says Mondloch. "I like to see people's faces — it gives us a sense that we're together. And if you set up your screen nicely, you can pick up little changes, shifts in position where you can tell somebody's trying to say something and… let somebody into a conversation." VIDEO EXHAUSTION CHALLENGES PROFESSIONALS Source: Virtira Consulting 49% Percentage of professionals working remotely reporting a high degree of exhaustion because of daily video calls 61% Percentage of respondents who conduct all their work meetings on video 58% Percentage of introverts who report on-camera exhaustion (compared to 40 per cent of extroverts) 25% Percentage of professionals who feel peer pressure to have their cameras on, even if not required "It can feel like we're in a situation of fight or flight… And, over time, that can be really tiring." Jeff Hancock, Stanford University

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