By now, most companies have gotten used to working remote. And regular company or group Zooms have become a part of our routine. They help us keep up with each other’s work, keep up our team bonds and can make us feel less isolated, especially if we live alone.
But is regular Zoom (or Facetime of your choice) actually a waste of time?
The further we move with the pandemic and the changes in the work mode, the more it becomes clear that, as always, people are developing their own adaptive and maladaptive strategies for dealing with these changes.
For the ambiverts, introverts and anti-socials, the change may be particularly complex, as it not only involves people invading their personal space, which they may not be willing and ready to share, or may not be willing and ready to share all the time; even if they are reasonably happy to deal with people at work, working from home and doing regular Facetime there may feel more of an invasion, especially because, unlike visitors one chooses on their own, and in their own time, this is a setup that they feel they have relatively little control over.
This is why the ambivert may be fine with lots of Zoom one day but may feel exhausted by it otherwise, the introvert may wilt like a badly cared for flower, and the truly anti-social will dismiss it as a waste of time – theirs and work, because, in their eyes, human connection truly does not have any meaning and use.
Recently, I have come across more and more businesses who seem to share the problem. Usually, it is only a couple of team members that feel this way, and to my knowledge, their work has not been significantly improved (or otherwise) if the Zooms stopped.
But the problem is more far-reaching, because businesses and teams tend to adjust to those who grumble most.
That means that an anti-social team member may in fact rob all others of a valuable time when they can not only socialise, but also discuss work related things face to face. And while the ambivert may adapt and introvert may get a little bit of a respite, their problems won’t be solved either.
Another possible reason for Facetime silence can be a change in mental health (not impossible during the pandemic) or, even more alarmingly, domestic violence, which has gone up significantly during the pandemic (link) and which can be insidious and nigh invisible especially when all other contact has been virtually nullified. This is a real problem that may affect someone at your office, and co-workers or manager can be of immense help by just being “around” via Facetime to notice something not being quite right, or perhaps an injury that may, now that literally no one is supposed to be looking, be in a more visible place, or damage to the background or odd, tense behaviour.
Absence of a person who may be missing, dead or in really bad physical state due to domestic violence is also far more easily concealed for a longer time via email.
Even if your team is lucky and you will never have to deal with that kind of a problem, it is important to note that Zoom time has its uses, and that, while you should of course consider everyone’s schedule, their added load as perhaps a carer, a parent or a pet parent, and their personality, you should also not cancel it because an anti-social team member grumbles about it. Their work is not likely to change in efficacy, but they are taking time to connect with others meaningfully, and perhaps through a medium that works well with them, from other team members. Remember that an office works when the team works, and that that also means recognising a team member with team wrecking qualities, and making sure they do not in fact damage the team.