3 Ways to Avoid “Zoombie Fatigue Syndrome”

By The Lerner Group on October 6, 2021

“The first virtue of a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.”

– Napoleon Bonaparte

Virtual or Remote Work will never completely replace the in-person workplace.  There, I said it!

Across the globe, corporate and small business cultures are seeking to harmonize the right blend of “on-site vs. off-site” collaboration. But in the interim, distance commuting via communication portals such as Face-Time or Zoom may have unintended consequences.

Virtual bridges such as these can serve as a kind of glue to keep everyone in the loop on task status, project workflow, or client relationship management. These speak to the operational needs of the enterprise. Unfortunately, this mode of communication can become stale quickly, leaving a flat after-taste.

Taken to the extreme, over-reliance on virtual communication as the primary means of team engagement over an extended period can leave participants feeling hollow, apathetic, and disconnected. In its most acute form, it can risk becoming what I call Zoombie Fatigue Syndrome or ZFS.

• 38% of Remote Employees Feel Exhausted After Daily Virtual Meetings!

A recent study on the effects of remote work found that most employees show signs of burnout when having virtual meetings every day. 38% of remote employees reported feeling exhausted after daily virtual meetings, while 30% said they felt stressed. (source: HR.com)

Remote work models can fall short when it comes to addressing the emotional needs of the enterprise. And it is these emotional needs that growth organizations rely on most to reinforce their unique cultural esprit de corps.

Even prior to the pandemic, stimulating Employee Engagement was perhaps one of the biggest challenges for business leaders today.

• Only 36% of Employees Are Engaged in the workplace!

According to Gallup, 51% of employees are disengaged in the workplace, while 13% are actively disengaged. While 36% of engaged employees is a relatively low percentage, it is the highest since Gallup started measuring employee engagement in 2000.  (source: HR.com)

Why Employee Engagement Is Important

• Engaged Employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.
• Not-Engaged Employees are essentially “checked out.” They are sleepwalking through their workday, putting time but not energy or passion into their work.
• Actively Disengaged Employees are not just unhappy at work; they are busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish. (source: Gallup)

Conversely, High-Performance Teams (HPT) crave and thrive on meaningful, collaborative human connections. And their bottom lines show it.

• A Highly Engaged Workforce Increases Profitability by 21%!

Another Gallup report on Employee Engagement shows that companies with a highly engaged workforce have 21% higher profitability. They also have 17% higher productivity than companies with a disengaged workforce. (source: HR.com)

The symptoms of disengagement may not be readily apparent to team leadership. Sometimes, morale can leak just a little bit at a time and disengagement lives just below the surface. The internet is full of ingenious examples of ways some businesses have gone out of their way to take on this connectivity problem. Virtual office parties, remote board games, background contests, happy hours, etc., are attempts at maintaining cultural connectivity by adding a degree of fun.

But while creating “fun spots” may work to hit the stress pause button, these attempts may just be scratching the surface. Laughing is not the same as crying. And teams that go the distance together make a “safe space” to do both. It may not be enough to address deeper underlying human needs such as a sense of belonging, relevancy, and respect. These needs come with a high degree of personal vulnerability both on the employee and management sides of the engagement equation. That is hard to do well in a virtual group setting. This may be best approached through the more intimate dynamics of a one-on-one setting.

3 Ways to Avoid “Zoombie Fatigue Syndrome” (ZFS)

Here are three ways you can increase team engagement, productivity, and connection:

1. Know What Truly Motivates Each Employee and Ensure Your Communication Supports It

The days of “one size fits all” incentive systems should go the way of the dodo bird. In his book “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” best-selling author Daniel Pink makes a compelling case for “amp-ing up” our focus on the drivers of intrinsic, not extrinsic motivation at the individual level. He shares insights on three root drivers that create higher employee satisfaction, fulfillment, and engagement. He argues for transitioning away from the traditional “carrot and stick” approaches to motivation that businesses have habitually used for decades. The new approach to motivation has three essential elements:

• Autonomy—the desire to direct our own lives
• Mastery—the urge to get better and better at something that matters
• Purpose—the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

Best Practice: Ask yourself, “how much time and attention are we spending feeding the intrinsic needs of each person on our team?” What can be done each day to move one step further away from the traditional “if-then” performance measurement system (“if you do this, then you will get that”). Spend more time sculpting individual work plans with more space for true empowerment with the freedom to act autonomously on projects the employee is passionate about. Create frequent dialogue around how best to align personal purpose with the mission of your organization.

2. Change Your Yardstick

As the old saying goes, “what gets measured, gets done.” Consider changing your focus by replacing Return on Investment (ROI) with Return on Collaboration (ROC). Traditional ROI measures money gained or lost on an investment. In contrast, ROC tracks the amount of “improvement” derived from a financial investment in collaboration. In the ‘Meetings around the World’1 study, Frost & Sullivan found that collaboration is a key driver of business performance.

“Overall, 36 percent of a company’s performance was due to its Collaboration Index. This is more than twice the impact of a company’s strategic orientation (16 percent) and more than five times the impact of market and technological turbulence influences (7 percent). This is a key finding because it empirically demonstrates that increased high-quality collaboration can improve business performance.” 1

Best Practice: create self-directed “Autonomous Collaboration Pods (ACP).” Stimulate cross-discipline work-streams for diversity of thought inputs. Consider allowing each pod the space for creating innovative solutions to problems or opportunities that they are most passionate about and willing to take the lead on.

3. Leading By Example . . . Being Present

Firstly, our team members have incredible powers of observation. Perhaps they know us better than we know ourselves. They know by a leader’s demeanor when they first come into the office whether it will be a good day or not. So, to ensure deeper engagement by our team, our personal behaviors need to reflect the employee behaviors we wish to see in our team.

Secondly, humans crave connection, whether in-person or remote connection, as long as it is genuine and sincere. Open, spontaneous, vulnerable communication can be the life-spring that nourishes emotional engagement and connection. This may be challenging for leaders to foster remotely without training in skills such as Emotional Intelligence (EQ). While some marginal benefits can surely be derived from virtual groups like spinning classes or remote yoga classes, there is no substitute for hands-on, personalized coaching, counsel, and mentorship. This type of investment can produce employee satisfaction, loyalty, and fidelity over the long run.

Lastly, how did you feel the last time you were speaking to someone about something that you felt was important, but you know the other person’s thoughts were far away on another matter. Or perhaps they were looking at their computer screen while you were bearing your soul about a project you felt passionate about. Not so good, right?

Best Practice: A recent article from Healthline.com suggest this exercise. Try leading by example as you go through your day. “As your physical self moves throughout your day, does your emotional self keep up? Do your thoughts accompany you from task to task, or does your mind drift and wander, making it challenging to pay attention to conversations or recall what you were just doing? Your body can physically inhabit a space when your mind is elsewhere. This tuning out might happen more often when you feel bored, stressed, or otherwise preoccupied. Being “present” (or living mindfully, whatever you want to call it) simply means you are focused and engaged in the here and now, not distracted or mentally absent.” (source: healthline.com)

This is even more important during remote conversations with your team members. If you want them to be all in and here for you and the team, then they must believe that you are truly there for them as well—no distractions, no hiding behind the issue of the day, but rather truly present. You can’t fake it; they will know it in their bones if you are not there for them. Done well, with intention and frequency, you may be surprised by the lift your team will feel from these “virtual hugs,” the after-glow of which may be seen in employee engagement and satisfaction, remote or otherwise for years to come.

To learn more ways to avoid Zoombie Fatigue Syndrome and create higher levels of team engagement, contact Bill Kica at bkica@hightoweradvisors.com