The ‘pandemic’ caused something unexpected to come about. People all over the planet were denied the ability to meet in person and so online meetings and get togethers were born.

This had obvious (at the time) advantages but unseen disadvantages. It allowed people a way to continue ‘normal business’ and to do it without the expenses in money and time of travel we used to bear before this phenomenon came about.

The thing is, while in person contact was forbidden, it served a very useful purpose in ‘keeping things going’, but there was an unexpected downside.

A ‘Zoom’ meeting for want of a better description requires a much higher level of focus and concentration on whatever is going on. When we focus on a screen in two dimensions for a period of time we begin to experience more tiredness and loss of concentration than we might in a person to person meeting.

For myself I find it very difficult to maintain ‘focus’ for more than 90 minutes at the most; for me the ideal, if there is one, is around 45 minutes, which when I went through postgrad teacher training was the recommended time for a classroom lesson (I believe it’s shorter now).

Often on a ‘zoom’ you’ll see people switch off their video as it goes on or use an AI ‘notetaker’ to substitute for them at the meeting.

During the pandemic it was a great solution, but more and more meetings are now being held online. It’s thought more ‘convenient’ for attendees because they may not need to travel and so forth but there really is no reason for ‘in house’ meetings (in the same building) to be held online when everyone concerned is already there!

Some companies, I’ve heard, are now requiring people to attend online meetings while on holiday – how, tell me, is this acceptable?

This and other unreasonable expectations for people to attend online sessions is why I call it the ‘curse of zoom’. I estimate from my personal experience since 2020 when it all started, the level of concentration and value people get from online meetings has significantly dropped and no, it’s not just me, I’m in a number of groups who use online meetings and when the question is asked “would you prefer to meet in person?” the answer from the majority is a resounding “Yes”.

In person meetings give us a depth of communication and understanding in a three dimensional environment which is just not present in the ‘flat plane’ world online. We are distracted by what’s happening in the background, what’s on the wall or in the bookcase and much more. Please contact me for more on this as I don’t have space for it here.

My message is to seriously reconsider your meeting strategy and unless you’re working in an international environment, find a way to conduct your meetings in person as the norm rather than resorting to the ‘Zoom shortcut’.