Finding harmony will reduce remote work fatigue and lead to longer-term success in this new remote world. In theory, hybrid offers the best deal for both employer and employee. It seemed a win-win for workers; in one May 2021 study, 83% said they wanted to go hybrid after the pandemic. Working from home provides many benefits, such as flexibility and the lack of a commute.
The absence of in-person interaction blurred boundaries between work and personal life, and the strain of staring at screens for prolonged periods contributes to this growing issue. However, no style of work is the ultimate solution, and with the onset of remote work, the boundaries between one’s professional and personal life are blurred. As a result, 69% of remote workers are experiencing burnout symptoms due to being overworked, having no sense of work life balance, and feeling unsupported.
Effective Strategies for Managing Remote Work Fatigue
So much of WFH burnout manifests in mental health symptoms whether it is a state of mind, mood, or depression. In order to stave off the most severe burnout, it is essential to build a healthy and balanced routine. Try having meetings without video, especially if you’re towards the end of the day when concentrating is waning and there have already been plenty of meetings. Let your employees listen to information about Trello alternatives without the need to have their video on and liberate them from wondering whether the cat is walking around in the background. Breaks are of course important, as we covered in the Pomodoro section. If possible though, and if you are the kind of person to enjoy socializing, see if you can arrange your breaks to coincide with colleagues.
- When you do need to schedule a meeting, be bold enough to reduce the total meeting time.
- It is important for your eyes, posture, and overall well-being to stop staring at your screen.
- A solid example is how US essential workers and health care workers make their own masks and protective gear.
- Engage in casual chats before or a few minutes after the meeting to release the pressure and lighten the mood.
- Unpredictable business reopening and closures based on community infection rates takes an additional toll.
Some conversations don’t even have to take place on a voice call. Consider carefully whether you need to be in an active call or whether a message or an e-mail would do instead. Keeping in touch with remote workers is obviously important, but how you do this can change everything. Conversation with people outside of your family circle, especially with co-workers who you get along with, is really critical. In the current environment especially, when seeing friends and colleagues face to face is rare or heavily controlled, actually having a little bit of breaktime with co-workers is really valuable. Zoom fatigue could continue to plague remote workers, especially women and people of colour, depending on the choices that companies make to prevent it, says Ratan.
Understanding the Complexities of Remote Work Fatigue
Other employees may have healthcare concerns that have been exacerbated by the pandemic and financial concerns about seeking treatment. If it’s within your budget, explore what your company can do to offer financial assistance through stipends. But unless you are a television personality, it turns out being online constantly is exhausting. Psychologists suggest that Zoom fatigue may come from the intensity of being hyper-focused while attempting to constantly process non-verbal communication from other meeting attendees.
And Zoom has almost single handedly made remote work, which many companies viewed with skepticism before Covid-19, actually possible. Remote working is here to stay, but the fatigue that can accompany it needn’t be. If you’d like further advice on how technology can be deployed to ease remote working fatigue for your workforce, please get in touch. Added to this, we have all endured a year-long cycle of uncertainty. Remote working, when everything else is uncertain and difficult, has compounded our loss of structure and added a new layer of intensity for many employees. The truth is, when dreaming of remote working, none of us imagined doing it during a global pandemic.
Things to Watch Out for While Working Remotely
For those who want to return to the office as fast as possible, a sense that this will happen in the future is necessary to overcome remote working fatigue. Preface ideas with phrases like “when we are back” or “when remote working fatigue everyone is in the office” to help people remember that these arrangements don’t have to be a permanent facet of life. Moving forward, employers may take a hybrid approach when it is safe to return to in-person work.
