Empathetic Leadership Series: 5 Policy Changes to Save Your Team Members From “Camera On Fatigue”
It is March 2021, and many companies are approaching the 1-year anniversary of their decision to switch to virtual working conditions for their employees.
Over the course of the year, we have learned more about teleworking and conducting business from home. Some of these changes have been very beneficial to the productivity and profit margins of many companies. They are saving on travel costs and enjoying the financial perk of not having to cover all of the overhead that comes with a brick-and-mortar office space. In many cases, working from home is a win-win for the company, but how is it impacting the people that work for them?
As a leader, I am sure that you are seeing the impact that remote work is having on your team members, hopefully good. Many people report higher feelings of burnout thanks to the back-to-back zoom calls and having to manage the struggles that come from not having a separation between work and home. This struggle has been given the name “camera on fatigue” and it is being talked about more and more amongst employees.
Pinpointing the exact reason why working through video calls can be more draining is still up to be determined, but this Harvard Business Review Article attributes the feeling to the stress that comes along with having to stare at the screen. Author Liz Fossilian states, “having to engage in a constant gaze makes us uncomfortable and tired. In person, we are able to use our peripheral vision to glance out the window or look at others in the room. On a video call, because we are all sitting in different homes, if we turn to look out the window, we worry it might seem like we’re not paying attention.”
No matter what the cause of “camera on fatigue”, we as empathic leaders must develop policies to help combat the strain that it places on our team members. In today’s blog post I will be providing you with 5 policy changes that you can implement today to help empathically respond to the possible burnout that your work from home employees may be feeling.
Make Cameras Optional
Having a strict “cameras on at all times” policy may seem like a way to ensure engagement from your team, but in reality, it may be adding to their stress level. Giving your team members the option of turning their cameras off for a meeting allows them to choose whether or not they are up for being seen on camera that day.
This policy will come in handy for the employee who has a messy toy room or dog running around in the background that day. Blur background is an option but let’s be honest you still can tell clutter and movement in which some days are better than others. Allowing your team members to choose when they show up on camera shows them that you trust that they are still engaged and working hard, even if you aren’t watching them the entire time.
One note I will mention is if you are interviewing a potential employee and you schedule using a video conference, please turn on your camera or tell the candidate ahead of time that you will not be using the camera. Candidates prepare for on-camera interviews so to do all of that work and to talk to a dark screen without using the camera can put a damper on the process and not a good representation for the company.
Schedule More Breaks or Block Out Meeting Free Time Blocks
Giving your team smaller breaks throughout the day while teleworking will allow them to recharge. The boost that comes from just being able to walk outside and get five minutes of fresh air can be life changing for the moral and creativity of your team members. These scheduled “mini breaks” can help account for the time in the traditional office where a team member may walk down to a coworker’s office for a chat or take the long way back from the coffee machine. In a normal work environment, these mini mental breaks would happen organically, but you may need to schedule them now that you have transitioned to the digital work arena. You might think of taking a walk yourself and use it to catch up on a friendly note with your employees and not use the virtual channel.
Consider Switching to Email
We all know the pain that comes from sitting through a meeting that could have simply been an email. This pain is amplified when the meeting is a video call. The amount of effort required to locate the link, be sure your microphone and connection are in place, and position yourself in the perfect lighting can be draining. No one wants to do all of that work just to listen to something that easily could have been read and responded to in less than 15 minutes.
The next time you are tempted to schedule a video call, ask yourself, could I better relay this information in an email? The option to use email will be best suited for situations where collaboration and input are not required. It is true that some things just cannot be done in email, but the truth also is that a lot of things can.
Record Your Message Instead
Sometimes leaders prefer to use video conferencing over email because it allows them to show the emotion or excitement on their faces but picking up on these emotions is part of the reason why video calls are so draining. In this article for health.com, Brain Wind, adjunct psychology professor at Vanderbilt University says, “One reason video chatting can be more tiring is because we have to work harder to interpret non-verbal communication. When we interact with people face to face, we are not only listening to their voices and looking at their faces—we are picking up on social cues, like hand movements, body movements, and even a person's energy.” Taking in all of this can be exhausting.
One way to combat this exhaustion while still allowing your team to pick up on your physical cues is to pre-record your message and allow them to watch the video on their own time. This gives them the ability to take in the message in pieces if they need to or wait to view the message when they are cognitively recharged.
Always Have an Agenda
If you have decided that you absolutely must have a virtual meeting with cameras on, be sure to have a mapped-out meeting agenda with objectives and a clear timeline. This allows your team members to know what to expect and hold everyone accountable for sticking to the subject at hand. Having an agenda helps to avoid the meeting running long which could lead to team members losing focus and engagement. Sending the agenda in a meeting ahead of time allows team members to mentally prepare and may lesson anxiety going in.
So, there you are leaders, 5 policies that you can implement to be a more empathetic leader and help prevent “camera on fatigue” for the members of your team.
Please share this article with the other leaders in your network and come back for next month’s instalment of the Empathic Leadership Series.
Next month we will continue this Empathetic Leadership Series by tackling the concept of “Taking Time Off Work For A Staycation ” and how you can support your team in this current environment that we find ourselves in.
