Zoom fatigue: Turning off cameras for video meetings sparks productivity and reduces tiredness, study suggests

More than a year after coronavirus lockdowns made video conference calls an everyday part of working life, new research suggests the camera is likely to blame for the feeling of fatigue that some people complain of after Zoom calls.

The study – conducted at the University of Arizona – analysed the effects of using cameras versus not when in a virtual meeting.

Researchers not only found that camera users reported tiredness “far more” than their non-camera using counterparts, but that women and newer employees were disproportionately impacted. This is likely due to added self-presentation pressures, the study’s lead author, Allison Gabriel, a professor of management and organisations at Arizona, said.

Other key findings were that the fatigue effect “is not attributable to the time spent in or the number of virtual meetings” someone has, and that fatigue itself is “problematic for employee voice and engagement”.

To explore the effect of cameras, researchers recruited more than 100 subjects for the four-week study. Half the cohort were directed to switch their cameras off in all meetings for the first two weeks and then keep their cameras on during meetings for the following two weeks.

The other half completed the intervention the other way around, with cameras on initially and then off for the next fortnight. All were instructed to complete a short daily survey measuring fatigue, meeting engagement levels and duration.

From the results, Ms Gabriel concluded that the “conventional” idea people are more engaged on camera is outdated.

“There’s always this assumption that if you have your camera on during meetings, you are going to be more engaged,” Ms Gabriel said. “But there’s also a lot of self-presentation pressure associated with being on camera. Having a professional background and looking ready, or keeping children out of the room are among some of the pressures.”

The fatigue camera users reported, Ms Gabriel added, resulted in less employee voice and engagement during meetings.

“So, in reality, those who had cameras on were potentially participating less than those not using cameras. This counters the conventional wisdom that cameras are required to be engaged in virtual meetings.”

The study, published this week in the Journal of Applied Psychology, offers some of the first empirical evidence of the growing phenomenon known as “Zoom fatigue” – a feeling of being drained and lacking energy following a day of virtual meetings.

It follows an article written by Jeremy Bailenson, the founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, earlier this year which discussed the trend at length.

After studying the psychological effects of virtual communication for more than 20 years, Mr Bailenson suggested four reasons why some people find video meetings so exhausting: excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense, seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing, video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility, and the cognitive load is much higher in video chats.

The solution is not to give up video conferences altogether, though, instead workplaces should give people the autonomy to choose whether they are on camera or not, Ms Gabriel said.

“At the end of the day, we want employees to feel autonomous and supported at work in order to be at their best. Having autonomy over using the camera is another step in that direction,” she said, adding co-workers should also refrain from making assumptions about distractedness or productivity if someone chooses to keep the camera off.

Another strategy Ms Gabriel recommended was examining a calendar of meetings each morning and deciding which can be on camera and which can be off, to help people pace themselves and avoid “video burnout”.