Finding Virtual Meetings Tough?

You’re not alone. I’ve had many clients come to me wondering about why they can’t seem to communicate well at work. We explore further and realize that they are on Zoom all day long. Sometimes, they do have some in-person meetings. Or perhaps they were in an in-person work situation and now they are mostly remote. Or maybe they took a job remotely and have rarely or never met their co-workers live.

Either way, things were a lot better without the virtual work environment and now they are taxing. You find it hard to relate. To understand. To follow what anyone is saying.

Researchers are uncovering that non-verbal cues are much harder to decipher, if not “disrupted”.

It takes so much more cognitive energy to try and process the cues we could normally use while in-person. And many people simply get overwhelmed, tired, or can’t accurately process.

Then let’s add in “Zoom Fatigue.”

Now I’m not (fully) knocking virtual meetings. My coaching is 100% virtual right now.

But we also can’t ignore the impact it has on many of my clients, who come to session wanting to work on a variety of negative impacts, and many boil down to the remote, work from home setup.

And how do you tell if it’s the remote environment or something else? Simply ask yourself when this all started. Rewind back in your memory. Were you always like this? When did things change?

And what to do if you’re feeling tired every day of staring at Brady Bunch squares?

You might consider re-evaluating working remotely.
You might consider moving to where your company is based.
You might consider taking way more breaks. Get up out of your chair and move around! Go outside!
You might consider changing your work environment, taking it to a coffee shop, or your back porch, or to a co-working space.
You might consider asking for an in-person meeting, whenever possible.

And more.

When you consider your current state and the realization that the remote Zoom environment in which work is a major cause of your distress, what of those options are possible for you? What else can you do to reduce your distress?