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CHRIS STOKEL-WALKER

BUSINESS

18.06.2021 06:00 AM

No, it doesn’t need to be a Zoom

We’re wasting hours of our lives on inefficient video calls. Here's how to decide when you should jump on a Zoom – and when not to

GETTY IMAGES / WIRED

Sravya Attaluri’s design studio is one of the many new businesses created during the pandemic. Founded in Hong Kong because Attaluri was trapped there due to Covid-19 and travel bans, the studio’s six employees are scattered across the world – in India, Hong Kong and the United States. It made sense, therefore, to carry out daily meetings on Zoom, checking in with colleagues and how they were finding life and work during the pandemic.

The company is unextraordinary: between October 2019 and October 2020, we spent 3.3 trillion minutes – or 6.3 million years – on Zoom calls. That’s up from 97 billion minutes, or 184,000 years in the 12 months previously. As Covid-19 pushed us out of our offices, we turned to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts.

But after a while, Attaluri and her staff began to tire of Zoom. They grew frustrated with the number of technical issues they’d encounter: laggy Wi-Fi, misfiring audio drivers, and webcams that sometimes wouldn’t turn on. They also began to resent appearing on camera every day: they’d got into a habit of using video calls because it was nice to see each other’s faces. “We started to realise they started working against us,” she says. “There was no need for all these meetings. Emails are honestly more efficient, and we’re all burnt out from chatting on Zoom all day.”

She’s not alone. Anecdotal evidence suggests companies who leapt headlong into the Zoom revolution are, more than a year on, starting to rethink when and how they turn on their webcams. “The past 15 months has shown that simply transferring meetings from conference rooms to dining rooms via video does not really deliver what workers hope to have as an outcome from a new way of working,” says Stuart Templeton, Slack’s UK chief, which obviously has an interest in more of us using its services compared to Zoom.

Academic research has pinpointed four reasons why we’re growing sick of video calls. For one thing, we’re engaged in an unnaturally large amount of eye contact, which can prove exhausting, according to Jeremy Bailenson professor at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab. We’re also stressed out by being confronted with our own face for hours on end (even if you can’t stop staring at it). Bailenson compares it to be followed around with a mirror all day. 

The need to appear centred (and focused) in the frame at all times means we’re not moving about as much, and research shows that walking while on the phone, for instance, improves cognitive ability. And finally, the difficulty in picking up on non-verbal communication – such as eye rolls, faint nods or gaze drifting off-screen to something more interesting – on video calls means our brains are working harder to parse what the other side is feeling and trying to say. (A number of researchers, including those involved with Microsoft Teams, are trying to solve that problem.)

WIRED

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CHRIS STOKEL-WALKERBUSINESS18.06.2021 06:00 AM

No, it doesn’t need to be a Zoom

We’re wasting hours of our lives on inefficient video calls. Here's how to decide when you should jump on a Zoom – and when not to

Image may contain Electronics Monitor Display Screen Lcd Screen Human Person TV Television and Furniture

GETTY IMAGES / WIRED

Sravya Attaluri’s design studio is one of the many new businesses created during the pandemic. Founded in Hong Kong because Attaluri was trapped there due to Covid-19 and travel bans, the studio’s six employees are scattered across the world – in India, Hong Kong and the United States. It made sense, therefore, to carry out daily meetings on Zoom, checking in with colleagues and how they were finding life and work during the pandemic.

The company is unextraordinary: between October 2019 and October 2020, we spent 3.3 trillion minutes – or 6.3 million years – on Zoom calls. That’s up from 97 billion minutes, or 184,000 years in the 12 months previously. As Covid-19 pushed us out of our offices, we turned to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts.

But after a while, Attaluri and her staff began to tire of Zoom. They grew frustrated with the number of technical issues they’d encounter: laggy Wi-Fi, misfiring audio drivers, and webcams that sometimes wouldn’t turn on. They also began to resent appearing on camera every day: they’d got into a habit of using video calls because it was nice to see each other’s faces. “We started to realise they started working against us,” she says. “There was no need for all these meetings. Emails are honestly more efficient, and we’re all burnt out from chatting on Zoom all day.”

She’s not alone. Anecdotal evidence suggests companies who leapt headlong into the Zoom revolution are, more than a year on, starting to rethink when and how they turn on their webcams. “The past 15 months has shown that simply transferring meetings from conference rooms to dining rooms via video does not really deliver what workers hope to have as an outcome from a new way of working,” says Stuart Templeton, Slack’s UK chief, which obviously has an interest in more of us using its services compared to Zoom.

Academic research has pinpointed four reasons why we’re growing sick of video calls. For one thing, we’re engaged in an unnaturally large amount of eye contact, which can prove exhausting, according to Jeremy Bailenson professor at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab. We’re also stressed out by being confronted with our own face for hours on end (even if you can’t stop staring at it). Bailenson compares it to be followed around with a mirror all day. 

The need to appear centred (and focused) in the frame at all times means we’re not moving about as much, and research shows that walking while on the phone, for instance, improves cognitive ability. And finally, the difficulty in picking up on non-verbal communication – such as eye rolls, faint nods or gaze drifting off-screen to something more interesting – on video calls means our brains are working harder to parse what the other side is feeling and trying to say. (A number of researchers, including those involved with Microsoft Teams, are trying to solve that problem.)

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Amrit Sandhar, founder of employee engagement company The Engagement Coach, has significantly dialled back his use of Zoom in recent months, only using it when it’s necessary to share computer screens. “If any work requires collaborative thought and exploration, we use the old-fashioned telephone,” he explains. “We have found that concentration is enhanced as listeners can focus on what is being said, rather than how someone’s background looks.” Sandhar also says that he and his employees are able to concentrate for longer periods on the phone, rather than on video calls.

However, for companies still hiring and training staff entirely remotely, seeing a friendly face and being able to connect it with a name is important. “If two people already know each other well, then there might be less need for having that richness of information,” says Chia-Jung Tsay, an associate professor at University College London's School of Management who researches business psychology. “But if it's a first time meeting, and perhaps there is a complicated issue to discuss, I think there are some aspects that would be more easily conveyed through visuals.”

Even Zoom’s own management agrees it’s not best suited to all situations. “Video calls aren’t necessarily the answer to everything,” admits Phil Perry, head of UK and Ireland at Zoom. “After more than a year of video meetings, people can occasionally forget the simplicity and speed of asking a question through a message – instead, automatically opting for a Zoom call.”

Virtual meeting fatigue is “a real and natural problem,” says Perry, who concedes that repeated remote video calls scheduled back-to-back can hit productivity. Zoom itself bans video calls internally every Wednesday, and also encourages staff to switch to audio-only breaks during meetings to disrupt the repetition of regular video meetings and to allow staff to feel less watched.

Carving out a day when video calls are banned is used by many companies, including Dublin startup Fiid. “Because we had so many meetings, we were talking about things we didn't have any time to do, which is actually what we're all getting paid to do,” explains Shane Ryan, Fiid’s CEO, who has banned Zoom calls on Mondays. “We ring fenced time, so that everyone has the space and the freedom to not just do things, but also to think and be creative,” he says. “Great ideas don't come out of when a moment when you're under time pressure, or when you feel like you have 30 minutes to get this done.”

Zoom itself uses its chat function to keep in touch with employees, but other organisations use platforms like Slack. “The pandemic has also been a good reminder of the neural diversity that exists amongst teams,” Templeton says. Slack has seen companies using its app to run brainstorms over a couple of days, with people adding ideas in a thread. “This has meant that people who would usually be a bit quieter on a Zoom have had the opportunity to structure their thoughts and participate more,” Templeton says.

But how do you decide when it’s best to Zoom and when you should use something else entirely? Attaluri still uses Zoom for her regular agenda meetings, but doesn’t require staff to turn on their video. Briefs for projects are shared via email, while one-to-one meetings are reserved for phone calls only. “We found that some of us actually feel more comfortable to open up when they don’t have their manager staring at them,” Attaluri says. Phone calls – or non-video calls through digital platforms – are also used more by Slack. “Many of my virtual meetings come with a note in the invite that says that the video is optional, giving the participants the freedom to decide themselves if they want to be on camera or not,” Templeton says.

One element of video calls that has shifted how we work is the need to be immediately able to respond to questions or concerns that may be raised. Employees know well the cold shudder that runs down the spine (and the thoughts that race through your head) when your boss pings you on Slack asking if you have five minutes for a quick Zoom call. People feel on the spot when brought in front of managers to provide prompt responses, whereas in the office environment pre-pandemic, they may have received an email that they could answer in their own time, after finding the answer to the question. “Chat features and collaboration tools can lead to faster responses and work being completed more efficiently,” Perry says.

Reclaiming the opportunity for asynchronous communication is vital, reckons Templeton. He’s heard of Slack users creating short video updates for project sprints or all-hands updates using tools such as Loom then sharing them to be digested when workers feel ready to work.

It's for that reason that the experts suggest saving Zoom calls solely for large, company-wide updates or start-of-day meetings, when you’re expecting to impart a lot of information and encourage discussion. “If I need to communicate something where actually conversation is really important – getting your feedback on something is what I need – then having a conversation might be a more time-efficient way of dealing with that task than spending a longer time typing out that message,” says Anna Cox professor of human interaction at University College London, who studies work and wellbeing in the digital age.