The COVID-19 outbreak has forced people to follow social distancing and nationwide lockdown to combat the coronavirus outbreak has left thousands of people with no option but to choose work from home (WFH).
Video chat has become part of the daily routine as it helps people to attend meetings at a time when social distancing has become a ‘new normal’.
One such app which is being widely used for this purpose is Zoom. Not only meetings, but school classes, prayer ceremonies, and yoga sessions too are taking place on Zoom.
But just four weeks down the line and Zoom fatigue has started setting in. Several people have started complaining about back-to-back meetings on Zoom. Sanjay Nath of VC firm Blume Ventures has coined a term for this situation – “The Zoom Prisoner”. Nath feels that he is losing track of meal times and even finding it difficult to remember days/dates because of back to back WFH.
“Anyone else feel like one?? Grimacing faceNerd face…WFH back to backs, different time zones, glued to laptops /phones, losing track of meal times and days/dates!” he wrote on microblogging site Twitter.
“The Zoom Prisoner”
Anyone else feel like one?? ??
WFH back to backs, different time zones, glued to laptops /phones, losing track of meal times and days/dates!
(finding small buffers between meetings and breaks to stretch/walk becoming important – suggestions welcome)
— Sanjay Nath (@sanjaynath) April 24, 2020
Sanjay Nath also asked people to suggest things to do get out of the “The Zoom Prisoner” feeling.
There are several others who feel the same way. Here’s how some of the people feel about attending meetings via Zoom.
Sick and tired of Zoom meetings? | @malabhargava https://t.co/4JLu8WTVoh
(pic via WA) pic.twitter.com/i3IIE6ZGTZ— PKR | প্রশান্ত | پرشانتو (@prasanto) April 23, 2020
Zoom fatigue is setting in, like how! https://t.co/z6xohS9WjE
— Chitra Narayanan (@ndcnn) April 23, 2020
The current situation has been nicely described in a tweet by an Italian management professor, Gianpiero Petriglieri. “It’s easier being in each other’s presence, or in each other’s absence, than in the constant presence of each other’s absence,” Petriglieri tweeted.
What is Zoom app?
Zoom is a video conferencing app that enables a virtual face-to-face meeting. The app allows you to join several people in one go and also lets you record the call as a video.
This app gained popularity after lockdown was enforced to combat coronavirus, especially in India.
However, the Indian government has requested everyone to not use Zoom video conferencing app because of some security issues. Several companies have banned their employees from using Zoom for work.
