Is Working Remotely Our Long Term Reality?
When we started this year, very few people had any idea how dramatically or swiftly COVID-19 would change the daily experience that most of us call “work”. In the San Francisco Bay Area, we went from business as usual to a Shelter In Place order in mid-March. Our usual Silicon Valley tech rhythm filled with lots of physical time in our local offices and flying to various offsites for meetings, customer visits, and conferences was gone. Everyone settled into what we thought would be a couple months of working from home to “flatten the curve”. Fast forward to July and we are still working from home and things have gotten worse in terms of controlling the spread of the virus.
70% will let some (or all) employees continue to work remotely
66% are reconsidering investments in offices
65% would not bring staff back into the office even if stay-at-home orders were lifted tomorrow
As the weeks pass, more and more data point to a long term shift towards remote work. The Kung Group conducted a survey of more than 500 founders of venture-backed companies, asking how the global health crisis has impacted their businesses. The results showed the following:
70% reported they will let some (or all) of their employees continue to work remotely, even after offices are allowed to reopen
66% are reconsidering their investments in their offices
65% indicated that even if stay-at-home orders were lifted tomorrow, they would not be inclined to start bringing staff back into the office
If remote work is not a passing trend and it’s here to stay, how do we adapt our work routines for the long term? One of the biggest changes is our increased reliance on video conferencing technology. Let’s talk about what happens when we mix technology with human brains.
Why is sitting at my desk and talking into a computer screen so exhausting?
Humans are hardwired for connection. I don’t care if you are an introvert, extrovert or somewhere in between. Human survival has always been dependent on reading the subtle communication, verbal and non-verbal, of those around us. Through our Brady Bunch grid view of video call attendees, we are unable to consistently read the usual cues that are present in a live interaction. This forces our central nervous system to go into hyperdrive. Whether you are aware of it or not, your brain must work double-time to make sense of the sensory inputs it is getting, while filling in the gaps where inputs are missing.
Multitasking is something humans are not designed to do. Most widely accepted research shows that we can rapidly “task switch”, but humans do not have the ability to truly engage in two things simultaneously. Given this context and layering in the concepts from #1 above, even a small team meeting with 8 attendees can become an exhausting exercise in task switching. Our brains are constantly working to keep up with the task at hand, while subconsciously processing multiple people in the gallery view at the same time. Who is talking? Did someone else have a comment? Is there something I should be saying right now? How can I get the right person’s attention so I don’t totally interrupt? Oh gosh, now someone is sharing their screen and I can’t see that font on this monitor. Do I ask them to make it bigger? Wait, did Sara just cough? Is she ok? Does she have COVID? All of this happens in real time, through a small screen, devoid of usual in person cues, while we are likely contending with distractions such as kids, pets, or a partner on another conference call in the next room. Sounds super sustainable for long periods of time. Not so much.
Our brains and bodies need time to process. A calendar packed all day with meetings and work defaults our bodies into sedentary time in our desk chairs, while our brains run sprints. This does not bode well for processing information, nor analyzing and decision making. Sure, we can do it in the moment when need be and we are pretty darn good at it. But when looking at growth and learning over longer horizons, we need to give ourselves processing time. Information in isolation means less than it does with additional context. Giving our brains and bodies time to step back, process and gather context enriches the original content. It’s not just the time, it’s the meaning we make during that time. For some people that’s a good night of sleep, others need a creative pursuit, some need quiet moments of contemplation, and my personal go-to is physical movement. Regardless of what fits for you, it requires time away from that screen.
What can we do to reduce virtual meeting fatigue?
Planning & Preparation. Let’s look first at the meeting structure. Tightening up our meeting planning and facilitation skills can go a long way towards reducing in-meeting time. Some critical questions to ask are: What is the outcome of this meeting and what needs to happen to arrive at that outcome? Is there pre-work that can be done before the meeting so people arrive with some of the critical thinking already prepared? What are we doing to run effective meetings that don’t waste time or get off topic? The second piece of this planning puzzle is the volume and timing of meetings on your calendar. How many meetings can you schedule back to back before fatigue and that familiar “checked out” feeling sets in? Bringing an awareness to this and utilizing calendar blocking (even 15 minutes between meetings) can help immensely. Note: Do NOT spend that time sitting and reading Slack! Get up. Move. Do something intentional that will resource you.
Regulate your internal state. I get it, sometimes the best intentions fall apart and you are forced to push through. When this does happen, you have more control than you think you do. Employing variations of mindfulness can be very helpful to return your focus on the present and feel less hijacked by your brain scanning the virtual extended meeting room. Additionally, Square Breathing (also known as Box Breathing), widely used by combat soldiers, yogis, athletic coaches, and mental health practitioners, is proven to increase mental clarity, energy, and focus by regulating your central nervous system. Before you dismiss this as something that’s just not practical, I’m not advocating a full meditation or breathwork practice while in a Quarterly Business Review. What I am saying is that you can and should leverage appropriate brain and body support instead of being held captive by your calendar and Zoom. This requires building awareness and using re-centering to help you stay engaged and effective.
Get up and move. No matter how great your desk/chair set up is, humans were not designed to sit for hours on end. This is not news to anyone, but this awareness doesn’t always translate to changing behavior. If we want to break the cycle of fatigue, we need to intersperse movement and let our brains unplug from the screens. Figure out what you like to do and then look at your schedule so you can book “movement meetings” for yourself. Remember, even 30 minutes 5 days out of a week add up to 2.5 hours, which is 10 hours a month. You can even break the 30 minutes in half and do 2 bouts of 15 minutes. We can all find 15 minutes at some point if we prioritize it.
So there you have it. This pandemic and our work adaptations will keep evolving over time. Stay on that growing edge!