I have been hearing this phrase more and more and I even said it myself. I filled my day with lots of online calls with the intention of finding connection and purpose. Then when I got fatigued, I blamed it on the calls. When in reality, they might not have been the root cause.
We used to spend all day with people at work or school and then would go to the pub in the evening / play a sport / go to a book club / a second job / waste time travelling around…
We didn’t often say we’re “peopled” out… we were just plain old tired. So what’s the issue?
The intensity of calls? Do they have enough purpose? How might the frequency and the duration play a part?
Only recently I spent 5 hours on a Zoom call and was up past 2am with my buddy in Argentina. Full disclosure – there may have been wine involved…
But, I didn’t feel fatigued or stressed out, I had a wonderful time chatting and messing around with my friend, just like we were in the same physical room together.
On a separate occasion (two days later I might add and so glad my friend and I change the date otherwise I would have not enjoyed this call as much – LOL!), I spent all day on Zoom doing a workshop.
We took breaks, stopped for lunch and mixed it up with main room and breakout sessions. Again, I would assert I would have been just as fatigued (if not more) had I needed to get up at silly o’clock to travel to an unfamiliar location and then endure the drive home after a very intense day of thinking.
Virtual calls are not the problem. It’s the purpose of the call that’s the problem, or lack there-of. And this might also be a period of adjustment because we can still remember the “old ways”. We tend to default to our liked and familiar experiences, and this discomfort with virtual calls might be us adjusting, amplified by the reality that it’s now the safest and preferred option.
Which means it might be a choice thing and we don’t like not having choice.
Now it’s your turn to tell me… here
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Abbie Pierce 