It took me a few months of working from home before I understood the concept of "Zoom fatigue" and how it applied to me. It seems like I always need a few extra minutes to rest after a Zoom call, and the rest increases more than proportionally based on the length of the meeting - it might be just a few minutes after a half-hour call, while an hour-long meeting means I'll need around thirty minutes for recovery. But is this situation specific to Zoom, or is there something else leading to the fatigue?
I think the answer lies in how the method of collaboration has changed without a corresponding adjustment to the schedule. Office work meant a meeting was an opportunity to get away from the desk, giving the eyes a precious break from staring at the same screen. This is no longer the case; I suspect meetings require a greater focus on the screen than for individual work. But it seems to me that meeting frequencies have not changed (if anything, they've likely increased) leading to the current situation of more screen time that also happens to be at a greater intensity than to what we were accustomed prior to COVID. I'm tired of the phrase "Zoom Fatigue", but no matter what you call it the mental toll is real, and an important issue for any organization interested in maximizing productivity and well-being during this trying time.
