To Zoom With Video On Or Video Off, That Is The Question

Just because you can use video doesn’t mean you have to: Professor Jeremy Bailenson

When the pandemic first hit and businesses across the globe had to quickly pivot to remote work, video meetings became a key tool. Employees worldwide soon became accustomed to spending what felt like endless hours in video conferences. 

We learned how efficient meeting virtually could be. We no longer had to commute from home to the office. We could move from one meeting to the next with the touch of a button. Unfortunately, that efficiency led to an explosion of video meetings, with many of us spending days in back-to-back meetings, staring at our screens, causing what’s been dubbed Zoom fatigue. 
 

In February, Professor Jeremy Bailenson, the founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, published a ground-breaking article about Zoom fatigue in “Technology, Mind and Behavior.” In an interview about his work, Professor Bailenson said, “Videoconferencing is a good thing for remote communication, but just think about the medium – just because you can use video doesn’t mean you have to.”

Wise words that, unfortunately, are being largely ignored. According to an Asana survey of 13,000 global workers, 71% of workers experienced burnout in 2020. Part of that undoubtedly stems from excessive video meetings, so organizations might want to take note and offer solutions to relieve their employees — and maybe give them back a bit of time.

Do We Really Need This Meeting?

It’s a lot easier to ask for a remote meeting than for an in-person meeting, since the request doesn’t have to be made face-to-face, which increases the number of meeting requests we all get. This is problematic because we aren’t all working in the same time zone, which means that meetings are happening outside of normal business hours for some participants. That’s okay once in a while, but more meetings mean that longer days have become the norm rather than the exception.

This problem is compounded by the proliferation of recurring meetings. It’s become far too easy for someone to suggest a particular meeting should happen every week. Suddenly, you have an hour blocked off on your calendar every week. Again, that may not be a problem with one meeting, but multiply that by five or 10, and we’re headed for burnout. So before scheduling a meeting or setting up a recurring meeting, we need to ask ourselves whether it’s truly necessary or if the issue can be handled via email, phone or automation.

Do We Really Need an Hour?

When scheduling meetings, we’re all accustomed to throwing out 30-minute or one-hour blocks because that's the way our calendars are structured. But do you really need that much time? Maybe less time will suffice. One strategy I employ is to schedule meetings for 10 minutes after the hour, which gives participants with back-to-back meetings a short break. Similarly, if the meeting is scheduled for an hour but the business is wrapped up sooner, end it early and give the team back that time. 

Do We Really Need to Be on Video?

Video meetings are great if you need to look at documents, but if the meeting is more of a discussion or creative brainstorming session, consider scheduling a conference call instead. That way, participants aren’t tethered to their desks. I know one executive who paces back and forth during phone calls and another who walks outside. This gives team members a badly needed break from sitting at their desks, and it can be easier to focus without the distraction of video — not to mention movement also stimulates creativity, so the meeting will likely be more productive and yield better results.

Are We Practicing Good Zoom Etiquette?

If you’re in a meeting in a conference room, chances are the team will be engaged and paying attention. As we all know, that’s not always the case on video conferences, where it’s easy to become distracted by messages popping up on another screen. I’ve seen individuals stop talking mid-sentence because they were distracted. A further problem is that the increase of meetings means, many workers are pressed for time, so they sometimes come to meetings unprepared and/or multitask during the meeting itself. 

A side effect of bad Zoom etiquette is that you can build a real lack of trust with your colleagues, partners or customers. We can address the problem by scheduling fewer and shorter meetings, but regardless, we need to give participants the respect they deserve by being prepared and laser-focused at every meeting. 

A few other ways we can practice good etiquette is to include an agenda in the meeting invitation so folks can prepare, make sure you’re technologically capable of joining the meeting on time and mute yourself when not speaking. Last, when scheduling a meeting, check all the participants’ calendars to ensure they’re available. This is particularly important with key participants. There’s nothing more frustrating than getting into a meeting and essential people aren’t there. 

There’s nothing inherently wrong with video meetings. Indeed, they’ve enabled the world to work remotely. But we need to be smart about the way we employ them and mindful of how they affect our work. We’d be wise to remember the words of Professor Bailenson, “Just because you can use video doesn’t mean you have to.”

Terry Simpson is a senior solutions engineer at Nintex, the global standard for process management and automation. He is an experienced PMP-certified project manager, consultant, trainer and speaker at numerous SharePoint events including SP Tech Con, Nintex User Groups, SharePoint Conference.ORG, SUGDC, SUGATL, and SharePoint Saturday events around the country.  Connect Terry Simpson