Serlyn, who is currently interning at Skillseed shares on the much hyped ‘new normal’ that the world is progressing towards. As we embrace a hybrid workforce model, we also struggle with the challenges of remote working such as Zoom Fatigue . With such unprecedented challenges and changes, how do we then manage our personal and professional expectations?
Source : Unsplash
As the pandemic swept the world, organisations and institutions rapidly transitioned to remote working and adapted to digital workspaces. This year and a half has greatly transformed working arrangements, especially with safety taking precedence over all. With the end of the pandemic nowhere in sight, organisations have transitioned into a hybrid workforce model, with a possibility of this hybrid work continuing for the next 5 to 10 years or possibly embracing it as the ‘new normal’ while the pandemic evolves into an endemic. Some prominent examples would be Google, DBS Bank, and Deloitte Singapore, all of which have embraced hybrid work regimes.
Source : Hybrid Work Age
Why is the hybrid workforce model appealing, maybe even more than the traditional workforce model? Besides the main factor of increased safety that a hybrid workforce model provides, there are many other benefits such as lower costs, higher employee happiness, and increased productivity.
On the other hand, with this surge in work-from-home and remote learning arrangements also brings about the predicament of Zoom Fatigue. Zoom Fatigue, also known as “Zoom Gloom”, is the feeling of exhaustion, concern, or burnout caused by excessive usage of virtual conferencing platforms. Research shows that 4 in 10 remote workers experience Zoom Fatigue due to the prolonged screen exposure and lack of human interaction during virtual studying and/or working.
The scientific reasoning behind Zoom Fatigue is the need for continuous partial attention when using virtual conferencing platforms.
“Continuous partial attention describes a state in which attention is on a priority or primary task, while, at the same time, scanning for other people, activities, or opportunities, and replacing the primary task with something that seems, in this next moment, more important.”
Source : Sketchplanations
Continuous partial attention forces you to multitask and strain yourself, causing the execution of simple tasks to become more challenging and taxing. How do we then combat Zoom Fatigue?
Here are 5 tips for you to try:
1. Build In Breaks
Whether it’s a 5 minute snack break or a quick 15 minutes walk, taking breaks can improve your overall productivity and mood. After a break, you may find yourself more motivated to continue working on your tasks.
2. Allocate Time Slots for Virtual Meetings
All virtual meetings should have a start and end time, alongside an agenda. Allocating time slots will prevent meetings from overrunning whilst an agenda would keep everyone on track.
3. Stop Multitasking
Multitasking is one of the main contributors to Zoom Fatigue. Although many believe that multitasking increases productivity, according to the Association of Psychological Science, it is a myth as multitasking actually reduces performance by as much as 40%!
4. Go Offline In Your Downtime
After spending hours in front of the screen, spending time away helps to alleviate Zoom Fatigue and provides a much needed visual break. You could consider taking a walk, reading a book, meditation or even cooking.
5. Practice the 20-20-20 Rule
“Every 20 minutes, take a break for 20 seconds by looking at something 20 meters away.”
Whether you’re working or studying from home, we end up spending a lot of time in front of a screen. The 20-20-20 rule was originally created to prevent eye strain, headaches as well as blurred vision.
Additionally, here are some personal tips from our Skillseedees:
Credits: Skillseed
From a global perspective, the pandemic has spearheaded our progress towards a hybrid workforce and is beneficial on many fronts. But from a micro-sociological perspective, the COVID-19 outbreak had various adverse effects on our well-being and health.
This is where the need to manage expectations — both in our personal life and in our professional career is more important than ever.
Firstly, setting realistic expectations is important. With the pandemic, many plans have been rendered impossible with the tightened safety and social distancing regulations. With these new limitations, we have to set expectations that are achievable today and are also flexible enough to adapt to unexpected changes. At Skillseed, we had to pivot our in-person sessions to designing virtual and blended learning experiences. Applying the Design Thinking principle, instead of striving for perfection right off the bat, we pushed ourselves to pilot our “good-enough” virtual programmes and continued to improve and iterate after every virtual session. We are grateful to many of our client partners who continue to trust, support and provide valuable feedback to us alongside this journey.
The next step would be to adapt to circumstances as best you can. Expectations need not be fixed but can and should be modified with our changing circumstances. This can be achieved by setting intermediate milestones, which will make your final goal appear less intimidating and keep you on track. Pro-tip: Remember to celebrate small successes along the way!
As the final and perhaps hardest step, do not judge yourself too harshly. These are new, unchartered territories that we are all exploring together and it has been difficult for everyone to adapt. This difficulty in acclimatising rings true for everyone - for friends, family, and work colleagues. We know that anyone can be facing these difficulties which is why, here at Skillseed, we make an effort to have weekly virtual check-ins to find out how everyone is doing to better understand how we can support one another.
Our Skillseed Fellow, Dione, echoes this sentiment. Dione has been conducting many of our training sessions at Skillseed for almost a year now and upon the switch to virtual training sessions, she found that participants take a longer time to open up. This is due to the nature of virtual sessions and the difficulty in fostering human connections online. She has been learning to adapt to accept this ‘new normal’ along with the rest of the team.
Just as the term ‘new normal’ has quickly become everyone’s new favourite/most disliked word, we will have to quickly adapt to these changes and tap on the strengths of the hybrid workforce model. With the advantages of remote working comes the disadvantages of Zoom Fatigue and the need to properly manage expectations, but if done right, we will flourish in these difficult times.
At Skillseed, we have fully virtualised our Training Suite and our signature ABCD (Asset-based Community Development) Walkshops — an experiential learning journey exploring the local communities under the themes of (1) Ageing-in-Place, (2) Social Inclusion, and (3) Environmental Sustainability. Through our virtualisation efforts, we have made our walkshops an immersive blended learning experience with interactive platforms such as 360° videos and Google Earth. As we work towards our next big challenge, stay tuned in the coming months for our overseas experiential learning programmes which are currently in the virtualisation works!
If you are keen to experience our virtual programmes, please reach out to us!
References
The Illusion of Multitasking Boosts Performance – Association for Psychological Science – APS
https://thebestschools.org/magazine/how-to-beat-zoom-fatigue/
https://www.vidyard.com/blog/zoom-fatigue-tips/#make-meetings-shorter-yes-all-of-them
https://medium.com/the-innovation/how-to-beat-zoom-fatigue-aba7b75e61f1