Lockdown letter: Zoom fatigue, checking in with Maslow and future plans
Day 46 in lockdown. This is my sixth letter. It’s become a form of weekly therapy.
It turns out that video conference fatigue is a thing. You’re not imagining it.
We’ve all had a rapid onboarding on FaceTime, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangout, Teams and Zoom during lockdown.
Gianpiero Petriglieri, an associate professor at Insead, who explores sustainable learning and development in the workplace, and Marissa Shuffler, an associate professor at Clemson University, explained to the BBC Worklife why video conferencing is so exhausting.
There’s the technology issue. Audio and video is broken up into packets and transmitted across the internet. Sometimes they’re delayed and don’t get reassembled correctly. It means you have to concentrate to compensate for delays and glitches in conversation.
Bandwidth can be a limiting factor. Both Sky and Virgin Media networks have faced overload and outages in the past week.
There’s also the human issue. You have to work hard to process body language and nonverbal cues. At a human level we’re connected socially but we’re not physically. It plays tricks with the mind.
Checking in with Maslow
I’ve cracked why I can’t settle to tackling a new project. I won’t be learning Mandarin or writing a book during lockdown.
The answer landed in the form of video by Fiona Crump, a counsellor and founder of Yellow Dot Women in my Facebook newsfeed via 80% Awesome, a Facebook group created by Rachel Picken.
Fiona explains lockdown using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The psychologist Abraham Maslow provided a framework for human need in the 1940s based on basic needs, psychological needs, and self-fulfilment.
Fiona’s contention is that we can’t respond to higher level human needs such as learning and development when our world has been turned upside down and we need to deal with basic and psychological needs. It explains the challenge of lockdown for parents who are working from home and home schooling.
Pleasure in simple things and new routines
A lockdown book or new language may be a tall order but there is pleasure in art, cooking, craft and community.
We’re using large quantities of flour for flat bread and pancakes. Sticks are gathered on daily walks to make campfires in the back garden.
People out and about taking their daily exercise have created hundreds of pebble stacks on our local beach in Whitley Bay. It’s a wonderful community act of craft.
Every surface in our conservatory and patio is covered in seedlings. The harvest of rocket and pea shoots has been limited so far but if we’re still locked down in the summer we’ll be working our way through a glut of beetroot, corn, peas and tomatoes.
The family Netflix account has taken a hammering. Ricky Gervais’ second series of After Life, Ozark and of course Tiger King are all recommendations.
Otherwise games and daft challenges pass the time. We Are Resource’s #PinkWaferJenger was a hit this weekend. Check it out for yourself on Twitter.
I’m writing on my blog more than ever. It’s a means of relaxing and thinking things through.
I’m also enjoying the conversations about the future of marketing, media and public relations in this community of practice that I started on Facebook.
The last week we’ve discussed and debated:
The impact of COVID-19 on the creative industries and professions
Rebooting the PR industry from the perspectives of PRWeek managing editor Danny Rogers and author and academic Dr Johanna Fawkes
The Ostrich paradox and self-fulfilling prophecies
The challenge of managing and communicating the exit from lockdown from the perspective of Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the US
Media consumption and social media use during lockdown
Brand reputation after lockdown
Open COVID-19 data sources
You’d be welcome to join us.
The plan to come
Amanda Coleman and Catherine Arrow both wrote responses to my Journey from Lockdown essay.
Amanda writes about recovery from the crisis. She urges communicators to support their organisations by showing their audiences the way forward.
There’s a plan to come this week from the UK Government. Boris Johnson has signalled his intention to start the conversation about restarting the economy and will publish a plan for the return to work, schools and public transport.
Stay indoors and stay safe. This too will pass.
