Feeling exhausted at the end of a long day of video-conferencing? Do your back, shoulders and mind ache after a Zoom meeting marathon? Do you miss the morning small talk at the office's water fountain and the face-to-face interaction with your favourite colleague?
If you answer yes to any of these questions, believe me, you're one of millions suffering from Zoom fatigue (疲劳), named after the popular video-conferencing app. Recent figures in fact indicate that four in 10 remote workers report suffering from a sense of physical and mental exhaustion that accompanies the long screen engagement and the lack of face-to-face interaction during the workday.
In March 2020 — when the World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 pandemic — there was a sudden and violent impact on work habits. Employers rushed to shift their workforce to remote working globally. Although the rush toward remote working and virtual learning has its advantages — think, for example, of how much shorter commutes (通勤) are — it does not come without costs. The clinical community has widely acknowledged the threat that Zoom fatigue poses to mental health.
Zoom fatigue has become so widespread that a group of scientists from the University of Gothenburg and Stanford University developed the Zoom Exhaustion and Fatigue Scale. This scale might be used as an assessment tool to better understand this condition.
The specific causes of Zoom fatigue are still unknown, but it is widely accepted that one of the contributing factors is the worker's urge to multitask during video calls. This phenomenon, which is also common in distracted driving, is motivated by our tendency to stay active following boredom or a short break in job performance.
While the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health are still unknown, it is not too far-fetched to expect that should this issue not get properly addressed, it would add to the mental and physical burden that COVID-19 will have had on remote workers, and the population as a whole.