The Unspoken Benefits of Online Video Calls

Marcus J. Fila, Ph.D.
4 min readOct 5, 2020
Photo by visuals on Unsplash

As our response to covid-19 continues, many professional workplaces are transitioning more activities online. This transitions has not been universally popular, to say the least. One such change is more online video calls.

The downsides seem obvious: a lack of face-to-face contact, the potential for technical issues to dampen the flow of communications, and perhaps a feeling of inauthenticity about our dealings. Online video calls can also seem to be more draining (particularly for introverts), there’s a whole new set of do’s and don’ts to master; and studies have shown that slight delays when we see people’s reactions (due to the technology), can make us feel anxious about whether our messages are being well received, and communicated effectively.

In short, virtually all — if not in fact all of us — want normal to return; and video calls seem to be an inadequate substitute for how we feel designed to communicate and interact. However, there are several advantages to zoom (or other such online…

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Marcus J. Fila, Ph.D.

Work Stress speaker, researcher, author, and consultant to organizations and individuals. Psychologist, and management professor. Visit easeworkstress.com.