Zoom Fatigue Syndrome
“He Froze. Not the Camera–His Soul.”
Midway through Q3 planning, regional VP Neil Lang stared into the webcam and simply said, “I am still connecting.” Then he stopped blinking and mimicked a buffering wheel with his finger.
Witnesses say his PowerPoint slides were replaced with a grayscale photo of his childhood home and a quote: “This is where I last felt free.”
Zoom fatigue has reached new extremes, according to workplace psychologists, who describe symptoms like phantom mute-button anxiety, emotional lag, and the uncontrollable urge to speak in spreadsheet metaphors.
Neil now wears noise-canceling headphones even in silence and answers questions with phrases like “Check your bandwidth” and “This is not syncing with my inner dashboard.”
He has been put on a digital detox, replaced with a cardboard cutout that offers better eye contact and less sighing.
Neil is reportedly recovering in a cabin with no Wi-Fi and a crow named Kevin who speaks in Outlook reminders.
Auf Wiedersehen, amigos.