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“Most of our social roles happen in different places, but now the context has collapsed,” says Petriglieri. Our current circumstances – whether lockdown, quarantine, working from home or otherwise – are also feeding in. Yet if video chats come with extra stressors, our Zoom fatigue can’t be attributed solely to that. How are the current circumstances contributing? Being performative is nerve-wracking and more stressful.” It’s also very hard for people not to look at their own face if they can see it on screen, or not to be conscious of how they behave in front of the camera. “When you're on a video conference, you know everybody's looking at you you are on stage, so there comes the social pressure and feeling like you need to perform.
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That dissonance, which causes people to have conflicting feelings, is exhausting. “Our minds are together when our bodies feel we're not. Video chats mean we need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. Is video chat harder? What’s different compared to face-to-face communication?īeing on a video call requires more focus than a face-to-face chat, says Petriglieri. Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we’re on video calls more than ever before – and many are finding it exhausting.īut what, exactly, is tiring us out? BBC Worklife spoke to Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor at Insead, who explores sustainable learning and development in the workplace, and Marissa Shuffler, an associate professor at Clemson University, who studies workplace wellbeing and teamwork effectiveness, to hear their views. There are the work huddles, the one-on-one meetings and then, once you’re done for the day, the hangouts with friends and family.
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