Working professionals experience webinar fatigue
The Hindu
According to the researchers, companies organising webinars should understand that “less is more” and focus on quality rather than frequency
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, private companies have started introducing webinars on a wide range of topics with the aim of improving productivity and boosting the morale of employees. However, after a year of working from home, employees are increasingly experiencing a phenomenon identified as webinar fatigue. S. Sooraj, who works in the marketing department of a private firm in Bengaluru, said his company organises at least two webinars a week. “Some of them do not add any value to our work, and often the lineup of speakers is very poor,” he said, adding that some day-long webinars go on for more than eight to ten hours. When researchers from the Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) studied webinar fatigue they found that a systematic and multifaceted approach was required to mitigate its effects, which include burnout. Their paper, ‘Webinar fatigue: fallout of COVID-19’, that was published recently in a peer-reviewed journal, made a case for webinar hosts to be trained in adopting best practices, promoting group interactions and breaking longer content.“Spider wasp,” says ecologist and nature educator Vena Kapoor, narrating the fascinating but macabre tale of the spider wasp and its victims. While adult spider wasps mostly feed on flower nectar, making them excellent pollinators, they are also what are known as “parasitoids.” Unlike parasites, they kill their host. In the case of spider wasps, females hunt down spiders, inject them with venom and lay eggs on them. Once they hatch, the larvae eat these spiders alive, inevitably killing them, she tells the huddle of women cloistered around this tree.
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