Prior to the arrival of the Coronavirus, most us had never used Zoom, Teams, or any other video teleconferencing app. Oh, maybe we had a telephone conference call now and then, but now many of us are spending several hours a week (or day) in front of our computer’s camera. And it gets tiring.
A new study confirms what we have felt. The study “Collaborating During Coronavirus: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Nature of Work” from the Harvard Business School shows that the number of meetings we now take has risen by almost 13 percent and the number attendees was up by 13.5 percent. The good news is that overall meeting time is down slightly even though we are having more of them.
“There is a general sense that we never stop being in front of Zoom or interacting,” says Raffaella Sadun, professor of business administration in the HBS Strategy Unit. “It’s very taxing, to be honest.”
The study also showed that employees sent 5.2 percent more emails a day and that 8.3 percent more emails were sent after regular business hours. It could be that flexible work schedules are pushing our email responses to later in the day.
What this study doesn’t tell us is what will happen once people are vaccinated and can return to the office? Will they? Or will people have the expectation that they can continue to work from home? What will that mean for the traditional 8-hour day or expectations over productivity.?
We continue to blaze a new workplace trail.
What are your experiences with our new work-from-home Zoom culture? Share your thoughts below.
Dave Edwards Media 