The Unknown Hazard of Virtual Meetings

🙋‍♂️Who hasn’t been on a Zoom, GoToMeeting, or Webex for work since the pandemic began? I doubt many of you are raising your hands right now.

It occurred to me that the prevalence of virtual meetings is reeking more havoc in our lives right now than leaders and we may realize.

When you go to an in-person meeting, you’re typically investing a lot more time because you may have to commute to the meeting location. Even if it’s in your office space, you have to get up and go and meetings may go long.

In a virtual environment, leaders and colleagues expect that you can be there in a snap. Meetings get scheduled at the last minute. Meetings get rescheduled at the last minute. It’s wreaking more havoc in our lives when we already have enough chaos.

Recently, an important meeting was rescheduled two times, prolonging the uncertainty and my anxiety. It was scheduled for Friday…then rescheduled the evening before for Monday…then on Monday it was rescheduled for Tuesday. The amount of additional time, stress, and anxiety this produced was real.

For Monday, I had arranged to drop my daughter off early at a friend’s house so her mother could take them to their afternoon class. When the meeting changed, I had to quickly communicate those changes to all involved. When the meeting was moved to Tuesday, I had to pick up my toddler early from preschool so that I could be back for the call and set her up with the iPad so I wouldn’t be interrupted.

I started to think: this must be happening all the time. Leaders are trying to get all the people in the room at the same time, and they aren’t thinking about the challenges that come with these shifts in scheduling, especially for those of us with children in 100% or hybrid virtual school right now.

Whether you’re in a leadership position or not, talk to your managers about this issue and be sure you’re mindful when scheduling and rescheduling meetings. While some meetings and changes can’t be avoided, many of these additional stress points can, which will lead to longer term satisfaction among colleagues and employees. Here’s what you need to consider:

1.     Do I absolutely need to schedule this meeting?

2.     Who MUST be at this meeting?

3.     What is the best time for everyone who MUST be at this meeting? If you cannot view everyone’s calendar availability, you can use an online survey tool for people to indicate their availability.

4.     Before you reschedule a meeting by sending a new calendar invite, inform the participants and ask them to let you know if they have issues with rescheduling it.

Whatever role you can play in reducing rather than increasing your staff’s stress at a time like this is of utmost importance and will serve you well in the long term. Maintaining morale should be a top priority and this is an easy way to make sure it doesn’t plummet.