Winning Over Zoom-Angst and Zoom Fatigue — Team Collaboration in Remote Work
By: Boss At Home
Tags: Work From Home, Lockdown, Team Building, Zoom, Communication

Overcoming “Zoom-Angst” and Winning Over “Zoom Fatigue” —

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Communication is harder when working from home, but we certainly cannot lower our gears. Isolation in virtual spaces is the core problem that we need to address in order to untangle the tiring effect we feel after series of online communication — aka “Zoom Fatigue”.

What we actually develop overall is a “Zoom Angst”, which is an uncanny feeling that lies deep in our consciousness with our own negative experiences and the humiliation we come across under titles like “Top/Epic/Hilarious Zoom Fails of 2020” or “Zoombombing”.

This fear of things going wrong is coupled with the not-so-natural way of communication we pursue. It is a major challenge (and at times an awkward one) for remote workers to collaborate effectively while having to take turns to speak, with the constant possibility of being interrupted or interrupting, and most importantly, in the absence of a real and non-verbal eye-to-eye communication.

Small adjustments and teambuilding activities can ease this pressure, and minimize the negative feelings filling our stomachs before and after the many sessions of online communication. Below we have gathered and coupled individual experiences with expert and scholarly advice to help you overcome Zoom Angst and win over Zoom Fatigue.

Preparation for Online Meetings: Know Your Online Communication Tool and Regularly Check Your Software and Hardware

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The previous 20-second stroll to the meeting room has now become a routine of turning on the computer and logging in to the online meeting software. What could go wrong?

In fact, what could be more frustrating than being denied access by the software due to errors like “wrong password”, “You’re not authorized, please contact your administrator” or “Please update and restart your PC”? An equivalent feeling in the pre-lockdown world could perhaps be finding a door locked to your face, while everyone’s passing by at your side, seeming to have no issue in entering the meeting.

Or perhaps, once you make it inside, what could be worse than not being able to unmute yourself, enter the discussion room dedicated to you or share your material with the audience. The insecurity of the endless possibilities of things going wrong puts additional weight on the already loaded emotions in online communication.

Three Steps to Repeat Regularly: 1-Learn, 2-Update and 3-Check

To feel the most comfort in communicating online and to get rid of the Zoom Angst, it is crucial to try, learn and be comfortable with your online tools. Most importantly, this will ease the possibilities of things going wrong, or worse, out of control. Here are some pro-tips from Zapier if you’re done with the basics already.

Another crucial measure is to update your meeting software regularly. Though this may seem obvious, it is not uncommon to encounter errors due to incompatibility with new features or unfixed bugs in older versions of the software. One of our writers [aka Hikmet], could not enter the “Room” spared for his poster presentation because he had an older version of the software (despite reminders to update) — What a shame!

Finally, it is also important to keep a regular check of the hardware we are using for communication, i.e. the headset, microphone, camera and internet connection, just to ensure that everything goes well during the meeting.

Once you are good with the above three steps and all is set, there should be no reason to have the Zoom-Angst anymore!

Keeping a Healthy and Collaborative Team Spirit

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The negative impact of remote on our relations working should not be neglected. When working in the office, it is easy to have a small talk with our colleagues, to share knowledge or experience, to inspire each other with new ideas and suggestions or even to crack a joke and ease tensions at any time.

Nowadays, however, we have fewer opportunities to connect with our colleagues except for the online meetings, after which we are all on our own to perform tasks. While it is always possible to slack or zoom for what used to be “a tap on the shoulder”, we do not, most of the time, perhaps due to the fear of bothering. And in fact, even when we do, it may not be likely that we get a response. Thus, the frequency of team communication is less than before, potentially decreasing individual and team motivation and productivity when not managed well.

Allocation of Tasks

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Team leaders and project managers have an even more saturated importance in managing the well-being of their teams Virtually. They should be more careful with task allocation and have an increased attention & consideration of the individual realities of team-members while working from home.

Encouragement of openness to transparent discussion (both within the team and individually) can therefore be beneficial for the organization of remote work. Further, celebration of achievements, acknowledgement and appraisal of individual and team success is important to improving team cohesion.

Building and Maintaining Trust Within the Team

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One crucial aspect of virtual collaboration is trust. Can you trust people when you can’t see what they’re doing? A most recent study (2020) by Dr. Christina Breuer and her colleagues on trust within virtual teams have identified five factors: ability, benevolence, predictability, integrity and transparency.

The actual application of this framework is very well summarized by Leeds University Professor Kerrie Unsworth in her introduction to the Special Issue of Human Relations Journal on Virtual Teams:

“So, for example, you might want to create a shared database listing each team member’s specific expertise; a discussion board to allow for benevolent advice sharing; clear and explicit commitment to shared values (again, we see the importance of the shared expectations and shared sensemaking); and transparent workflow management systems.” Kerrie Unsworth, Journal of Human Relations

Virtual Social Events for Teambuilding

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For building and strengthening teams, having avenues where team members can share feelings is very important. Daily interaction points, such as morning coffee Skype meetings or digital lunch breaks, can help keep contact with colleagues for knowledge sharing, feedback, or just to catch up socially.

After celebrating many birthdays, a Christmas and a New Year virtually, it should not be that difficult to think of virtual games or events. Nevertheless, we have gathered some of our favorites in the following section.

For the full list of the 50 virtual activities see:

And by the way, No, tiny campfire is not our favorite — due to the possibility of leading to an even deeper Zoom-Angst after triggering a smoke alarm!

So here are our top four choices for team building activities from teambuilding.com:

1- Our Favorite: Two Truths and One Lie

This game is a real ice-breaker, and can be very fun for established teams too!

All team members think of three facts about themselves — two truths and one lie — and others try to guess.

Seemingly false facts [I can fly-], can be true [ — says a paraglider], and seemingly true or uninteresting [I can cycle-], might have a twist [ — says someone who has cyclophobia].

2- Best Bingo-Alternative: Virtual Scavenger Hunt

3- The Price is Almost Right

All team members choose and present an object within their reach and the person who guesses closest to the actual prices wins!

4- Virtual Escape Rooms