Managing communication fatigue in the workplace

What is communication fatigue, and where does it come from?

Communication fatigue is one of the most common issues you’ll encounter in the modern workplace, whether you know it or not. It’s one that tends to sneak under the radar and is unaddressed a lot. We are often told that more communication is better… that is not necessarily true.

That’s why the term “communication fatigue” was introduced in the first place. Communication fatigue is defined as a feeling of being overwhelmed, stressed, or exhausted by the amount and frequency of communication. In the workplace, you might be constantly juggling one or more of the following in your day-to-day:

Emails

Chats

Calls

In-person meetings

Virtual meetings

Conversations

Added up and taken in every day, it can get to be too much and cause communication fatigue, a real phenomenon that has major consequences on performance at all levels.

The effects of communication fatigue

At the individual level, a person’s ability to focus on tasks in the midst of distractions and low mental bandwidth is connected to their productivity and performance. If sustained over time, symptoms of burnout can start to appear. Physical symptoms like headaches and nausea or emotional symptoms like anxiety and apathy are all tell-tale signs of communication fatigue and can easily cause an actively engaged employee to disengage. It may also be a factor that prevents an unengaged employee from getting more invested in their work.

People might be more apprehensive, response rates might drop, and/or unhealthy conflicts might crop up within teams as well. All of these scenarios lead to communication gaps and problems that affect a team’s ability to produce the quality of work that they’re capable of. Beyond just that, poor communication reflects in a team’s culture, and a whole range of issues could come attached to that.

Combating communication fatigue

As a leader, it’s crucial to ensure communication fatigue isn’t affecting your team. Not only will it dissatisfy your employees, but it will reflect in your bottom-line performance. You might be thinking – how? How do I combat this without reducing or cutting off vital communication lines where important things are going on? It’s a fair question.

There are some common ways to get started. Start by understanding the following four key ideas:

More communication doesn’t always equate to superior results

Not all communication is needed or relevant

People have a set limit to how much communication they can handle

The nature of communication matters

Operating with these concepts in mind can make a big difference in someone’s day-to-day. Take, for example, meetings. One of the lessons we teach in our curriculum at Dignify is how to have an effective meeting. Let’s consider it from the angle of preventing communication fatigue.

Having more meetings (and by nature, more communication) doesn’t guarantee that outcomes will be reached, and decisions will be better. Reducing the frequency and time of your meetings, keeping the discussion on track, and reducing the number of participants to only those who need to be there can go a long way in preventing communication fatigue.

People can only take in so much, so don’t schedule them for meetings that they don’t need to be in. Let them preserve their bandwidth for the things that are directly related to their role. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, keep the discussion civil and productive. When discussions are constantly negative and/or unproductive, it’s no wonder why people eventually get fed up.

Overall, you can apply those four key ideas to anything when it comes to communication, whether it’s meetings, emails, chats, or anything else. The best thing that you can do to prevent communication fatigue in your team is to be aware of it. Look for the signs, have an open conversation about it, and be proactive in preventing it. If you notice someone that might be experiencing communication fatigue or behaviors that might induce communication fatigue, take action before it’s too late.

JOE KIEDINGER