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How is the Hybrid Workplace Really Working?
Remember Zoom fatigue? Perhaps it’s only a distant memory now as you’ve returned from the pandemic to a full in-person schedule. Or perhaps, as I often hear, you have what seems to be a permanently altered work rhythm, which has become some hybrid mix of in-person meetings for the important ones, and Zoom meetings for efficiency and convenience.
Well, as we venture forward in this brave new world of hybrid, we have three reasons for being wary of the long-terms effects of this continued experiment with video conferencing on a regular basis.
In my pre-pandemic book, Can You Hear Me?, published in 2018 by Harvard Business Press, I identified a few culprits for Zoom fatigue. First, and most important, is the phenomenon that arises because of our sixth sense, the one few of us are aware of, proprioception. It’s never taught in the schools, as it should be, along with the five well-discussed senses, sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. And yet proprioception is arguably just as important as the other senses, and perhaps more so. It is the unconscious sense that allows us to keep track of ourselves in space, and to keep track of where others are, so we don’t bump into the furniture or other people. If you have a partner that you sleep with, proprioception allows you (and your significant other) to know where each other are, so that you don’t kick…
