As long as you communicate your availability to your team, there is no shame in changing up your routine. One of the best ways to avoid remote work fatigue is to mindfully set up the home office for maximum support. While colleagues in traditional offices tend to have similar working environments, virtual coworkers can have vastly different home office spaces. Each work from home setup is unique, and the cause of a virtual work slump may be the result of an element of the environment.
Starting your meetings with an icebreaker can help you avoid awkward silence at the beginning of the call. In addition, icebreakers are a great way to begin your call on a fun and positive note. If you want to make your meetings more exciting, then you should incorporate anti-Zoom-fatigue activities like icebreakers. Learn the processes you need to find, recruit, and onboard remote employees (and stay compliant while you’re at it). It can help you to build processes at work that support your self-care, which helps you avoid falling into the same situation again. This could look like a buddy system with a coworker where you keep each other accountable for leaving work at a set time.
Stay healthy
Set remote work fatigue up a Zoom game night to catch up with friends, send a care package to loved ones, or drop off a home-cooked dinner for an elderly neighbor. Some thought the pandemic would be short-lived and everyone would soon return to the office, but nine months have already passed. “Tiger King” and murder hornets kept us distracted briefly during the pandemic, while the Pentagon announced the possibility of UFOs.
Change your environment
If you find that you’re resisting the idea of time off, remember that burnout is a health issue. It’s important to take the time out to prioritize your own self-care. She reminds us that we all knew how to take time out when we were children — we simply played by doing the things we loved. There are many ways you can start to take care of yourself if you begin to feel like you are burning out at work. Most of these ways involve slowing down, building self-care into your schedule, and creating healthy work habits.
Start with an icebreaker
We’re not only using video conferencing tools like Zoom for work, we’re also using it for connecting with family and friends. It’s a lot of time spent looking at a screen, and video conferencing requires us to maintain constant attention and eye contact to let others know we’re fully tuned in. Ways to cure remote work burnout include socializing with coworkers, re-establishing boundaries between home and work, switching up workday routines, and practicing self- compassion.
You need to implement a wholesale strategic shift to reframe your company culture and policies from the “emergency mode” of working from home to remote work being the new normal. We lead wildly fun experiences for teams with 1,000,000+ players to date. In fact, being too hard on yourself is likely to sink your morale further and make you work even slower. When your work from home days become a slog, the solution may be to back off instead of doubling down. Adding exercise into the workday can release endorphins and provide a much needed mood boost. Perhaps watch training modules while on the treadmill, or take a midday lunch break to take a walk.
Zoom fatigue is a growing phenomenon, yet there is often little escape from staring at screens in 100% remote offices. The reality is that virtual work involves a great deal of staring at computers, and there is very little workaround for this fact. For more ideas, here is a list of virtual team activities and online social outings. Each month, team members vote on a book and have one month to read the title before meeting via video call to discuss it.
It’s just one example of how workers are struggling under the surface in a way that isn’t easily recognized in our new remote environment. Burnout can exhibit itself in numerous ways from mental, to emotional, or physical symptoms as a result of exhaustion and chronic stress. Working from home provides many benefits, such as flexibility and the lack of a commute. However, remote workers may also work longer hours, have to share workspaces with family or roommates, and feel disconnected from the rest of the company. Add in a lack of physical activity and social interaction, pains from having wrong equipment, staring at screens, and it is easy to see how remote workers can get fatigued.
- Taking steps to prioritize your mental health at work tremendously decreases your chances of experiencing Zoom fatigue and burnout.
- Above all, be open to change and experimentation, and ask for help when and if you need it.
- ” Question of the Day is a fun icebreaker that can help you learn more about your teammates.
- Zoom fatigue can happen when teams participate in so many meetings that employees become exhausted.
Block calendar slots for rest
Common causes of work from home burnout include a lack of boundaries between work and home life, a sense of disconnection from peers, need for more structure in the workplace, and overwork. With the help of a WiFi extender or LTE, you could also bring your phone, tablet, or laptop outside and enjoy fresh air while attending a Zoom meeting or working solo. Sometimes, it is not the screen itself that makes you feel sluggish, but rather feeling stuck indoors. Logging offline and stepping away from the screen may be easier said than done.
The result is an increase in productivity but also a sense of alienation from peers. Beyond the essentials, you can also add extras that elevate your home office space. For instance, pedal bikes to promote physical activity or standing desks to help with alertness. Having nutritious snacks and a large water bottle within reach can encourage healthy habits and prevent detours, as well as make you feel physically better.
