Working professionals experience webinar fatigue

According to the researchers, companies organising webinars should understand that ‘less is more’ and focus on quality rather than frequency

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, private companies have started introducing webinars on a wide range of topics with the aim of improving productivity and boosting the morale of employees. However, after a year of working from home, employees are increasingly experiencing a phenomenon identified as ‘webinar fatigue’. S. Sooraj, who works in the marketing department of a private firm in Bengaluru, said his company organises at least two webinars a week. “Some of them do not add any value to our work, and often the line-up of speakers is very poor,” he said, adding that some day-long webinars go on for more than eight hours. When researchers from the Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) studied webinar fatigue they found that a systematic and multifaceted approach was required to mitigate its effects, which include burnout. Their paper, ‘Webinar fatigue: Fallout of COVID-19’, that was published recently in a peer-reviewed journal, made a case for webinar hosts to be trained in adopting best practices, promoting group interactions and breaking longer content. They noted that the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) includes burnout as an occupational phenomenon rather than a medical condition and have said that there is a need for workplaces to mitigate webinar fatigue. Dr. Manoj Sharma, who heads the SHUT clinic, said that some of the ill effects of webinars include digital fatigue in the form of eye strain, pain in the neck, back and shoulders, more sensitivity to light and disturbed sleep.