The bizarre effect Zoom meetings are having on women

It’s safe to say that working remotely from the ‘comfort’ of home isn’t the glamorized perk we were offered last March.

For many, working remotely has dismantled the concept of the 9-5, effectively muddling the notion of work-life balance. As a result, many companies are reporting higher levels of burnout than usual.

New research from Stanford has uncovered another dark underbelly of remote working that is particularly taxing on women: videoconferencing. 

“Zoom fatigue”

That feeling of exhaustion you get after a long day of Zoom meetings isn’t just psychosomatic.

Recent research published in the journal Technology, Mind and Behavior, has put a name to it. It’s called “Zoom fatigue”, and it’s disproportionately affecting women. 

The researchers found that one in seven women (13.8 percent) expressed feeling “very” to “extremely” fatigued following Zoom calls. This figure is alarmingly high when juxtaposed to the one in 20 men (5.5 percent) who experienced it to that intensity.

To qualify the data, the researchers implemented a “zoom exhaustion scale”.

In a follow up study, the researchers used this scale to survey 10,322 participants in order to further discern the full extent of technology’s impact, particularly for women. 

“We’ve all heard stories about Zoom fatigue and anecdotal evidence that women are affected more, but now we have quantitative data that Zoom fatigue is worse for women, and more importantly, we know why,” Jeffrey Hancock, co-author of the study and professor of communication in the School of Humanities and Sciences, told Stanford News. 

“Self-focused attention”

There is a reason why women are disproportionately affected. The researchers cite “self-focused attention” as the main trigger for the negative emotions associated with Zoom fatigue. 

“Self-focused attention refers to a heightened awareness of how one comes across or how one appears in a conversation,” Hancock told Stanford News.

In other words, being confronted by a mirror image of yourself takes a toll on mental health.  

The research also found that proximity and positioning to the camera positively correlated to incidents of Zoom fatigue. The demand to stay centered exacerbates “self-focus” amongst women.

This data supports previous findings that women are more likely to focus their attention on themselves when in the presence of a mirror, intensifying anxiety about appearance.

Other groups at risk

Being a women doesn’t necessarily mean you’re at greater risk for Zoom fatigue. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the research found that extroverts, regardless of their gender, did not experience it. In fact, they reported feeling less exhausted.

In terms of age, older individuals actually have an advantage — a higher number of young participants reported feelings of exhaustion following Zoom meetings.

Lastly, the researchers considered race. Though this segment of individuals needs to be further researched, in their nascent findings the researchers found that participants of color reported higher incidents of fatigue than their white counterparts.

Hancock told Stanford News that the team was still working to understand the race effect in order to “develop solutions to address it”.

Avoiding a “self-view” to combat Zoom fatigue 

Luckily, there is a quick fix for combating self-focused attention on Zoom. It involves simply turning off the “self-view” mode during your video conferences.

The researchers also encourage managers to call for fewer meetings per week, or, alternatively, conduct “video off” meetings on certain days of the week.

So, if you’re feeling burnt out as a result of Zoom meetings, the research suggests that approaching your boss with ‘no-meeting days’ could work to your advantage.

To find out if you’re a victim of ‘Zoom fatigue’ take Stanford’s self assessment survey.