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Meetings & Communicationnoun · /zuːm ˈfætɪɡ/

Zoom fatigue

In simple English

Zoom fatigue became a widely recognized term during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, when many tech workers transitioned to remote work and spent entire days in back-to-back video meetings. The exhaustion stems from several factors: having to maintain constant attention to faces on screen, increased self-awareness from seeing your own video, the lack of natural breaks between meetings, and the cognitive load of interpreting digital communication without non-verbal cues. In tech workplaces, managers and team leads discuss strategies to combat Zoom fatigue, such as shortening meeting durations, having camera-optional meetings, and scheduling breaks between calls. The term has become common workplace vocabulary used to justify why teams need in-person days or why meetings should be asynchronous when possible.

Understand what Zoom fatigue is, why it happens, and how to manage it in a remote or hybrid tech workplace.

At a glanceCEFR B2
Commonness5/5
Versatility3/5
FormalityCasualFormalCasual
Spoken ↔ WrittenSpokenWrittenBoth
Directness ↔ DiplomaticDirectDiplomaticDirect
RegionUS and UK
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Say it like this

✓I am really feeling Zoom fatigue today after all these meetings.
✓We need to address Zoom fatigue on our team—everyone is burnt out.
✓To combat Zoom fatigue, let us try having some meetings as email updates instead.

Real examples

in a standup

"I noticed we all seem to have Zoom fatigue, so I am making this standup async this week."

in a retrospective

"Team members mentioned Zoom fatigue as a major pain point, so we decided to cap meetings at 30 minutes."

in an all-hands meeting

"The company is bringing people back to the office two days a week to reduce Zoom fatigue and improve collaboration."

Don't say this

Handle with care. Zoom fatigue is specific to video conferencing exhaustion; do not use it to mean general tiredness or other types of fatigue. It is also now used more broadly for video call fatigue beyond just Zoom meetings.

✕I have Zoom fatigue because I did not sleep well last night.
✓I am tired because I did not sleep well. Zoom fatigue comes specifically from video call exhaustion.— Zoom fatigue refers specifically to exhaustion from video conferencing, not general tiredness from other causes.
✕The Zoom fatigue affected our project timeline.
✓Zoom fatigue among team members caused reduced productivity and affected our project timeline.— Zoom fatigue is an experience people have, not something that directly causes external outcomes; be more specific about the effect.
✕We eliminated Zoom fatigue by switching to Slack.
✓We reduced Zoom fatigue by moving some meetings to asynchronous Slack updates.— You cannot eliminate Zoom fatigue completely; you can only reduce or manage it through better meeting practices.

Other forms

noun

Zoom fatigue

"Many remote workers experience Zoom fatigue after eight hours of back-to-back calls."

adjective

Zoom-fatigued

"The team looked Zoom-fatigued by the end of the day, so we cancelled the evening meeting."

Often used with

suffer from Zoom fatigueUsed to express experiencing the exhaustion: I am suffering from Zoom fatigue.
reduce Zoom fatigueUsed when discussing strategies to lessen the effect: We can reduce Zoom fatigue by shortening meetings.
combat Zoom fatigueUsed when actively fighting against it: Our company is taking steps to combat Zoom fatigue.
Zoom fatigue hitsUsed colloquially to describe when tiredness sets in: Zoom fatigue really hits after the third meeting in a row.

Similar words

video call fatigueMore general term that applies to any video conferencing platform, not just Zoom.
meeting fatigueBroader term that can include any type of meeting exhaustion, not specific to video calls.
screen fatigueFocuses on eye strain and tiredness from screen time generally, not the social-cognitive aspect.

Opposites

in-person collaborationasynchronous communicationcamera-off time

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Practice

Try it

4 quick exercises

Pick the most natural phrasing

1. Your manager wants to explain why the team needs a no-meeting Friday. Which sounds most natural?

Complete the sentence

2. After five consecutive meetings, everyone on the team was clearly experiencing _______.

Spot the mistake

3. Which sentence uses Zoom fatigue incorrectly?

Rewrite naturally

4. Rewrite this in natural tech English using Zoom fatigue: 'The team is tired from many video meetings, so the manager should allow people to not attend some meetings.'

Questions

Quick poll

Have you said "zoom fatigue" in a standup this week?

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