For almost six years, I’ve been the only remote member (employee, then contractor) for my company. Though I used to work in our office in Arkansas when I lived in the area, my family moved back to Wisconsin, and I was able to continue my position remotely. Not only do I live 750 miles away, at times I feel even further away.
Then, COVID-19 hit. My office in Arkansas where everyone but me worked suddenly shifted to 25 separate home offices. My co-workers were now remote, too.
Our video calls over the past two months have been SO helpful for me to engage with my co-workers. Previously, we communicated primarily via email and phone calls. The calls were primarily conference calls where I was on speakerphone with a roomful of folks in a conference room. Not being able to see faces while we talked, knowing everybody else could see each other, was challenging at best.
Via LinkedIn today, Amber Naslund shared “The reason Zoom calls drain your energy.” The headline alone made me want to dive into the article. One key thought stood out to me:
“Most of our social roles happen in different places, but now the context has collapsed,” says Petriglieri. “Imagine if you go to a bar, and in the same bar you talk with your professors, meet your parents or date someone, isn’t it weird? That’s what we’re doing now… We are confined in our own space, in the context of a very anxiety-provoking crisis, and our only space for interaction is a computer window.”
So even though I have greatly benefitted by video calls with colleagues, I can relate to the content in this article. I know my colleagues, who aren’t used to working from home, are already suffering a bit from the energy drain of being on camera multiple times a day.
My Advice: One thing that helps me is that I only do work video (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.) calls from my home office. And I always do social calls from elsewhere in my home — kitchen, living room or sitting area in my home’s entryway, depending on who I am talking to.
What kinds of things are you doing to help avoid burnout from video calls?
