Researchers from Old Dominion University and Ohio State University found that people are exhausted from video conferencing, but not for the expected reasons. The use of video conferencing has increased in the last year thanks to the pandemic and it is taking its toll on some workers.

During the study, 55 employees in various fields in the U.S. were surveyed about their experience with video conferencing; 58% of the participants were male, 73% were white and the average age was 33. Participants were sent nine hourly surveys every day for five consecutive working days in 2020. Over 1,700 surveys were completed and workers participated in an average of five to six videoconferences during the work week.

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The survey found that watching themselves on webcam or turning it off had no significant impact on a participant's post-meeting fatigue. But participants did report conflicting feelings on post-meeting fatigue. Some felt that when webcams were off, meetings felt impersonal and some were exhausted by staring at the screen. Only 7% of participants reported not experiencing video conferencing fatigue.

The team was surprised to find that a sense of belonging and connection within a group minimized the negative effects of video conference fatigue. There was little to no pre or post-meeting chatter in video conferencing, but participants reported that chatter would provide a sense of group belonging, which had a significant effect on reducing video conference fatigue. Participants also reported that early afternoon video conferences caused less fatigue than other times of the day.

Based on the study, the team created recommendations to follow that would help relieve video conferencing fatigue:

-Hold video conferences in the early afternoon whenever possible

-Enhance group belongingness by including time for small talk before a video conference or encouraging breakout rooms where employees can talk about subjects other than work

-Establish basic meeting rules, like requiring cameras to be on during meetings

-Encourage employees to take breaks by looking away from the screen, standing up or walking around

The study was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.