How Team-Building Events Combat Working From Home Fatigue

Sturdy and spacious desks, ergonomic chairs, and computer monitors make a noticeable difference when working virtually. Setting up a professional workspace can draw a divider between the home space and office space, reinforce boundaries, and improve productivity. Many companies now cover the costs of these setups, so be sure to take advantage of existing home office stipends or check with your employer for options. In fact, a survey from Monster found that 69% of employees are experiencing burnout symptoms when working from home (up 20% from only a few months earlier).

Finding a new place to work out of is one of the best work from home burnout tips. Switching environments can be a way to re-energize and refocus when working remotely. For instance, digital nomads wander while working, setting up makeshift home offices while traveling to different cities and countries. You do not need to hit the road full time to switch up your remote work setup. From time to time, working in a new location for one week, one day, or even just a few hours may be enough of a change to bust you out of a rut.

Make some of your meetings audio-only

Here’s your reminder to be careful about what media you consume to protect your mental health. “Stay informed but moderate the time you spend listening to news reports https://remotemode.net/ and make sure that you stick to fact-based information,” Dr. Levine says. Maintaining a well-balanced diet is important in regulating our energy and mood.

These activities now involve a greater level of conscious thought. Connecting via technology is rarely effortless, and you may need to learn new remote tools to collaborate with your team remotely. Working overtime has proved to be one of the most common fatigue and stress boosters.

Combat Work-At-Home Fatigue With Team Building

As a result, this lack of human interaction makes loneliness one of the biggest challenges of WFH fatigue. You don’t have to leave your desk to meet colleagues or attend meetings in a home office, nor are you commuting to work. But sitting in a chair all day and not getting any exercise is bad for your body, and getting remote working fatigue up for only snacks or bathroom breaks doesn’t count. Since the rush to work from home overturned traditional office life, many now prefer to keep working in a fully remote or at least a hybrid work setup. As a result, you’re likely working flexible hours yourself, if not already working from home full-time.

Working from home fatigue is often referred to as “zoom fatigue” but they aren’t exactly the same thing. With Zoom fatigue, it’s specifically addressing the problems with having all meetings via Zoom or different videoconference apps like Microsoft Teams or Skype. As humans, we communicate with our hands, eyes, and facial expressions as much as we do with our voices. It’s really hard to pick up on those non-verbal cues in a zoom meeting. There is also the intensity of making eye contact with people for hours on end. Most people working from home most likely have an increased amount of zoom or video meetings and will probably be suffering from a bit of zoom fatigue.

Drink More Water and Less Coffee

Embracing your natural work rhythms can help you feel better about working remotely. For instance, beginning early in the morning, working evenings, or taking a long break midday. Perhaps you have non-work responsibilities that are easier to tend to during the day.

• The vast majority of organizations treat these issues as day-to-day challenges.
• Try a cooking or art class if you want to provide some light-hearted fun.
• Separating office space from living space and cultivating a healthy work life balance is a key to sanity.
• While it is incredible how good technology has gotten, it has its moments.

This type of meditative exercise has been shown to reduce anxiety levels and even increase productivity. The key is to understand that non-work conversation is an important aspect of office life and is one that’s lacking when working from home. But by keeping it up, you can help keep your team’s spirits and morale up. In order to develop strategies you can use to reduce the impact of work-from-home fatigue, you first need to understand the root causes that are driving it.

One of the best ways to avoid remote work fatigue is to mindfully set up the home office for maximum support. While colleagues in traditional offices tend to have similar working environments, virtual coworkers can have vastly different home office spaces. Each work from home setup is unique, and the cause of a virtual work slump may be the result of an element of the environment.