Think You’ve Hit Burnout? Learn the Signs and How to Reset

Before we get into some of the Zoom fatigue statistics, I wanted to share some general data about the platform and usage first. You could provide online meditation or yoga class memberships to staff https://remotemode.net/ or send out occasional “treat yourself” gift cards in place of in-office breakroom snacks and coffee. Empower staff members to take walks around their neighborhood or stretch throughout the day.

• Technostress has received a significant amount of research interest over the last fifteen years (Chandra et al., 2019, Califf et al., 2020, Tams et al., 2018, Tarafdar et al., 2019, Tarafdar et al., 2010, Tarafdar et al., 2007).
• Her work has been published in leading marketing journals such as Journal of Business Research, Technology Forecasting and Social Change, International Journal of Market Research, and Journal of Marketing Communication.
• Stress creators are found to have a negative impact on individual wellbeing (Verduyn et al., 2017), as they place a high demand on an individual.
• First, we focus on work-related technology platforms such as Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other traditional work-related systems that are being used at home remotely during the pandemic.
• Cities such asTulsa, Oklahoma, offered as much as $10,000 for remote workers to relocate.

What is now widely known as the new normal has introduced unexpected measures in our lives, which individuals and organisations are likely to learn from. Enforced work from home and the ability to cope with resulting disruptions can be cited as notable lessons that will potentially redefine organisational and individual lives in the years to come. The findings of this paper offer useful implications in this regard, beyond this pandemic, in the event of crisis situations such as natural disasters, wars, and civil unrest, and even the next pandemic that may trigger enforced work from home. The results indicate that in an enforced work-from-home situation, increase in the use of technology for work enhances the impact of WTPS. Remote work is stressful largely because of a lack of clarity among team members about their roles and expectations.

Three key sources of remote work stress

However, we’re in a unique position to alleviate some of the issues our employees are facing, and by keeping these best practices in mind, we can prepare our workforce for a return to some semblance of normalcy in the coming months. While not a medical or psychological term, burnout happens when your job starts impacting your physical and mental well-being. To counter Zoom fatigue and reduce eye strain, experts recommend breaks between meetings. According to the basic rest-activity cycle , humans are optimized to pay attention for about 45 minutes, but at 90 minutes, our cognition drops significantly. Additionally, creating room for play can help foster team connections (so long as it’s done in small group settings), as well as relieve brain fog and anxiety. Some easy games that translate well to virtual or hybrid settings are Scattergories, trivia, and crossword puzzles.

It’s important that employers look for ways to alleviate any negative feelings surrounding the remote work environment, both for the health of their teams and the wellbeing of their companies. This study is one of the first to examine work-related and personal platform technostress in tandem. Thus far, scholarly works have generally maintained a separate focus on each technostress type. Although our research was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic , the theoretical implications for and the importance of assessing both types of technostress simultaneously are immense. Increasing remote work and work-from-home scenarios (Delanoeije et al., 2019, Kreiner et al., 2009, Sarker and Sahay, 2004) that expose individuals to both forms of technostress warrant our taking them into account simultaneously.

Ways to Address Remote Work Fatigue

The technique has been known to help avoid burnout, balance work pressures, and help people make the most of their time. Schedule downtime in your personal life to ensure that you rest and reset doing relaxing or enjoyable activities. Even if it means planning to watch TV in the evening with a friend or partner, making commitments to non-work activities will help ensure that you are keeping a balance in the way you spend your time. NoHQ, we will explore the symptoms of WFH burnout, and what employers and employees can do to overcome remote work fatigue. Employees in the hybrid world are 1.27 times more likely to struggle to disconnect from work than employees in the on-site world. Employees are struggling to know when and how to switch off at the end of their workday, with 40% of hybrid or remote employees reporting an increase in the length of their workday in the past 12 months.

For example, I became anxious about driving months before I figured out what was wrong, which would have been a much bigger problem if I was supposed to commute to work. I might have caught the symptoms earlier, and consequently, addressed them sooner. Remember that detail about remote workers being more productive than their office counterparts?

What Do WFH Burnout and Zoom Fatigue Look Like?

While those who worked in the office and now work at home feel burnout 4% less than before. Working from home full time during the COVID-19 pandemic is a very different remote working fatigue experience than working remotely prior to it. Leaders and executives haven’t been immune to the challenges posed by the pandemic and the need to work remotely.