William Shakespeare didn't do remote or hybrid work. If he did, he might have had Hamlet say, "To meet or not to meet, that is the question." Because if virtual meetings had consumed his days, Hamlet would have never gotten to the bottom of all his reflections, and we wouldn't have the benefit of his profound insights.
Depending on whom you ask, virtual meetings today are a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, UCaaS technologies enable millions of workers to work from home. But, on the other, it's created a significant rise in meeting frequency, a decrease in productivity, lost spontaneity between colleagues and a consequent increase in "Zoom Fatigue," described as "tiredness, worry or burnout associated with the overuse of virtual platforms of communication." Indeed, according to a 2021 study conducted by Virtira, 49 percent of US employees experienced virtual meeting fatigue.
And management views the increase in meetings as a drag on productivity.
"Surveys indicate that even before the pandemic, executives and managers said that meetings prevented them from being productive," said Guy Yaffe, Vice President VP of Recording Business Line at AudioCodes. "No doubt that has doubled, if not tripled, during and after the pandemic," he said.
Hybrid and Remote, Cubicle Life Is Almost Extinct
The hybrid workplace creates challenges for enterprises. The question now is how do we conduct productive meetings?
Once upon a time, employees could walk down the hall to ask a colleague a quick question. No more. Today, asking a colleague a question can involve scheduling a 30-minute video call.
"Employees used to be able to walk 30 seconds to a colleague's cubicle to ask a question," Yaffe said. "Now everything is much more formal. Plus, there are hundreds and hundreds of emails, IM's and WhatsApp messages. It's a very challenging workplace environment," he explained.
