? ZOOM-out ?, the new disease hitting executives.
Treasurers as many other finance executives are over-abusing of ZOOM-like video conference systems. When we say "ZOOM" it is of course applicable to all other video conferencing systmes. There are many. Some Standford searchers named it the “zoom fatigue”. Are you facing a risk of “Teamsing-out”? of “Webexing-out”? It seems that video conferencing creates additional stress and more than real life meeting. However, in real life meeting you must add the traveling/commuting stress, which is not innocuous. Academics claim it is caused by the non-verbal overload of never-ending conferences. The reasons are still complicate to identify. One of the reasons may be found in the close-up eye gaze which are often excessive. When you start a video conference, the first one you will see, like in the morning in front of your bathroom mirror is you. We see ourselves by reflections at a frequency never reached before in history. As Narcissus we see our image again and again… and people after couple of seconds cut the video, claiming it helps improving the bandwidth and internet signal… hum hum… Some treasurers have decided to hide selfie window automatically. Some when they cut their video always see the same picture of them… Is it better? I do not know…
They also see again and again the same background. Other treasurers prefer a nice Australian beach, a Grand Canyon landscape, or a Swiss lake as background per default. Other use the same TEAMS office background, which without green backscreen change your hairdo blurred and hide your cup of tea. The smarter treasurers have already reduced the size of the video windows to mitigate the weight of mirroring. In some cases, difficult for commercial people, to hide videos. It is part of their job. But without videos, the limited body language becomes nihil. It is true that a simple phone call, when people know each other well and speak to each other often, may be enough. Do not forget WhatsApp! TEAMS exhaustion and WEBEX fatigue are new form of modern diseases we will face in the world after COVID. To the question of who are the most affected by this constant reflecting image of themselves, men, or women? It seems that women are more affected by this over-reflection of their image, day after day. Home working is more relax in terms of clothes we wear and maybe make-up for women. It may explain this less positive perception of yourself. Google Meet is great, but treasurers may be fed up with the work from their kitchen, from their bedroom, from their corridor, … It is the Groundhog Day, isn’t it? Are we fed up with ZOOMING, TEAMSING, GOOGLEMEETING, WEBEXING or by our too small bedroom, too tight living room, …? At least, these systems have saved our executives life’s. Compared to the pandemic horrible symptoms, what fatigue are we talking about? It is not the same types of trauma. Nevertheless, we should not underestimate the impacts in the long run. The absence of reliable broadband connection is a cause of high stress, as well as the kids playing and yelling around. “Dad is working, calm down please!” has been often heard. Scientists are at the beginning of studies but already claim and underline that there is a mental burden of being forced to sit in front of cameras and stare at screens filled with faces, of course including your own. The eye gaze proximity created by these solutions with people we must interact with and who are not casual acquaintances, co-workers or friends may cause problems to some workers. We may call it the “screen ache”. Every day, hour after hour (as it is the new meeting frequency adopted), we are forced to self-evaluate ourselves. I do not know if it is true, but I heard that plastic surgeons have never been so busy, as people are fed up with their face and require lifting or surgery to look nicer. These are few of the first impacts we have noticed with the over-use of video conferencing. Whatever the impacts and consequences, I must confess that I love ZOOM and could not imagine the post-COVID life without these solutions, even if not perfect.
Fran?ois Masquelier, Chairman of ATEL – March 2021