Almost half of homeworkers suffering ‘Zoom fatigue’

Zoom fatigue. It sounds like just another ‘21^st century problem’. But the reality is that while video conferencing has been of indisputable benefit in recent years, particularly during the pandemic, thanks to the ways in which our brains process information, virtual meetings are actually much more mentally demanding than traditional office-based communication. 

During in-person communication, our brains use the 7-38-55 rule to decipher the meaning behind the information relayed. 7% verbal, 38% tone of voice and 55% body language. Video calls take away most of the body language cues, but because the person is still visible (unlike a phone call) your brain still tries to compute that non-verbal language. This means that your brain works harder, trying to achieve something that it simply can’t do. This impacts data retention and can lead to participants feeling unnecessarily tired. 

While this is fine for the occasional client update, the heavy use of Zoom, Skype and other video conferencing apps throughout the period since the start of lockdown has left many homeworkers feeling drained. In fact, a survey of 1500 people revealed that 47% of those who regularly use video conferencing software for work calls have experienced Zoom fatigue, with 22% of those experiencing it ‘all the time’, and most prevalent in the 25-34 year old age group.

And the problem is amplified for anyone who might need to take notes during the call. 

Myna has been created to automatically transcribe video conferencing calls and extract the key spoken and written highlights,  providing a fast and accurate record of all meetings, removing some of the strain of virtual working. Once the call has closed, all authorised parties will receive an emailed transcript of the meeting. But unlike other video conferencing recording platforms, Myna does not store any customer data – either video or transcript. So, the customer keeps control of their data.

Myna comes with a number of unique features that make it more than just a meeting transcription tool including:

• Automatic Topics for navigation: Myna looks for the key phrases in any conversation and highlights the most important ones, allowing you to get a quick summary of the call and navigate to what is important
• Slide Content Capture: Myna capture the content of slides, and creates chapter headings to make them easier to find and navigate
• In-transcript editing: If you want to distribute the SmartTranscript and need to make some changes to the text to deal with mis-transcription, there is a built in editor
• Add custom vocabulary: Myna allows you to add your own words to improve transcription. The models are rebuilt every week to give you better and better transcription.
• Dropbox Integration: Just drop a recording into Dropbox and the SmartTranscript will come right back by email
• Calendar-driven recorder: When you are not the host or you can’t get access to the recording, Windows 10 users can use the Myna Recorder which starts and stops recording based on events in your calendar.  It even has a “hot button” to allow you to mark important parts of the recording in real-time

Nigel Cannings, founder of Myna said, “There’s no doubt that video conferencing has helped many businesses significantly throughout the period of lockdown and social distancing. However, it comes with its own drawbacks. With poor data retention and workers left feeling tired after calls, productivity is inevitably affected. 

“According to an initial survey of businesses using Myna, it is saving them an average 4 hours per week per team member using it. This time saving comes from the redundant need of note taking, more clarity and focus on what matters in the meeting, export to contact reporting and shortening the time to action the information discussed.”