Digging into “Zoom Fatigue”: A Qualitative Exploration of Remote Work Challenges and Virtual Meeting Stressors

Abstract

Purpose: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees suddenly had to work remotely and realize all work-related social interaction in virtual formats. The sudden shift to the virtual format came with new workplace stressors. To understand the stressors of remote work and videoconferences, we present two qualitative studies. The aim of this study is to better understand the stress associated with remote work and videoconferencing, with an emphasis on how workers cope with the added stress. Methodology: We applied thematic analysis to open-ended survey data from employees in the US (n = 349) and in-depth telephone interviews of 50 meeting leaders from the US and Germany. Findings: We identified the work–home interface, technology, and communication issues as key challenges of remote work. Further, we found camera usage, early meeting phases, and multitasking to be central stressors of videoconferences. Finally, we identified individual- and team-level coping strategies to reduce the impacts of virtual meeting stressors on employees. Originality: Our research contributes to the emerging field studying the effects of virtual work and videoconferences on employees. We provide an overview of the challenges of remote work at the early stages of the pandemic, and we present an overview of the stressors that emerge in virtual meeting environments. We discuss insights into why videoconferences may fatigue employees. Including German and US samples, our research allows a cross-cultural comparison of videoconferencing stressors. Finally, we present actionable practical recommendations to improve videoconferences.

Does witnessing multitasking impact turnover and conflict? The influence of employee dark core

“…Multitasking impacts employee social interactions [ 7 ] and positive coworker relationships encourage commitment behaviors and favorable reactions. Others also found that multitasking acts as a stressor in today’s technology saturated environment where it is more common because of the virtual environment [ 2 ]. Therefore, it was surprising that the current study showed no differences in either turnover intentions or interpersonal conflict based on the relevance of the secondary task coworkers were engaging in and did not support hypothesis 1.…”

“…The modern workplace has become a technology-saturated environment [ 1 ], with employees having to shift their interactions to a virtual format [ 2 ]. This allowing opportunities for coworkers to be evaluated for their technology use, especially when it differs from organizational norms or personal preferences [ 3 ].…”