“I’m more exhausted from a day of at-home work, than when I used to run from meeting to office to meeting around Boston,” comments the head of legal for a hospital system in Massachusetts.

Even though our clients are getting used to the new-normal-zoom/WebEx/telemedicine workday, they are drained. And it’s showing up in the way they’re communicating and leading.

Here’s why. According to Dr. John Molidor, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, our brains are working overtime in our stay-at-home offices. You are concentrating on the square panel that’s talking, you’re watching the background behind all the attendees (admit it!), you’re watching yourself on your own 2-inch square (admit it!), you’re observing the nuanced non-verbal cues which are harder to discern than in “real time”, and you’re crunched over your screen.

A zoom hour reminds us of a “dog year”. Not exactly the 1:7 year ratio, but one zoom hour feels like 90 minutes. That makes a full day feel like 1 ½ days.

How to overcome #zoomitis – inflammation of zoom (etc.):

1. Schedule shorter meetings – max of 45 minutes.
2. Insert breaks of 15 minutes if your meetings have to be longer.
3. Sit ergonomically at your computer.
4. Walk around and get some steps during your breaks.
5. Make some of your meetings audio only.
6. Drink lots of water.
7. Do something unproductive to regenerate.

Diet, exercise and managing stress are the keys to avoiding physical inflammation. Guess what? They’re the same ingredients to employ to reduce zoom inflammation.

Call us if you want to zoom about zoomitis!

Thanks Dr. John B. Molidor for your source data.  

© 2020 Karen Cortell Reisman, All rights reserved   

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Karen Cortell Reisman, MS, Executive Communication Author & Speaker