Healthcare-tech investor Christina Farr, 36, said most people tell her they're relieved to be off camera when she asks to take meetings by phone.
Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI
If anyone is ready to kick Zoom to the curb, it's Christina Farr.
The 36-year-old healthcare tech investor said on X, formerly Twitter, earlier this month that 90 percent of her meetings are phone calls, while 10 percent are on Zoom.
"I'm healthier, happier, and the benefits derived from taking meetings on a walk far outpace my enjoyment of seeing someone's face over a screen," wrote Farr, who also writes a Substack newsletter on healthcare technology called "Second Opinion" for 20,000 subscribers.
Other desk workers have moved away from video calls, a decision that is also backed up by recent research on Zoom fatigue.
Speaking to Business Insider — over the phone, of course — Farr said the choice to switch to mostly phone meetings with her network of startup founders, investors, and operators happened after she developed sciatica, or nerve pain, while working remotely for a venture-capital fund in 2021.
"Suddenly, I was six months pregnant, sitting at home during a pandemic, and on these back-to-back Zoom calls," said Farr, who now mostly works a hybrid schedule. "I was just sitting all the time."
She said her condition "got so bad" that she struggled to move toward the end of her pregnancy. Though sciatica can have various causes, Farr said she firmly suspects the hours on Zoom sans physical activity was one of the main culprits.
Farr started moving her video meetings to phone calls so that she could take walks during them. She recalled some people she asked to switch formats reacted with surprise, "You feel like you're that annoying person that's like, 'Hey, do you actually mind if we don't do video?'"
Courtesy of Christina Farr
But the more she asked, the more Farr — who said she has up to seven hours of meetings each weekday — realized how many other people also hated Zoom.
"People almost want to talk to me because it's the one break in the day when they don't have to be sitting," she said. "I have been getting responses like, 'Oh my God, thank you so much. I really don't want to do that either.'"
Farr knows phone calls don't work for every type of meeting, especially when visuals are crucial — like when a slide deck is being presented. However, she said, it's usually a viable option.
Alyssa Jaffee, a friend of Farr's who is also a healthcare-tech investor, also prefers to use the phone for most of her meetings — which can take up to 10 hours during her workday, depending on the day.
Jaffee, a partner at Chicago-based VC fund 7wireVentures, believes the pandemic propped up the idea that it's "rude" to be off-camera because "you're not present if you're not on video."
"There is a challenge around the perception that is hard to break free from," Jaffee, 37, said.
But she said it's a false narrative.
"When I am on audio only, I am often moving, I'm often walking in my neighborhood, I'm walking on the treadmill in my basement, and I'm only focused on the conversation I'm doing now," she said, adding that being on the phone mitigates the chance of being distracted by incoming notifications, emails, or other browser tabs. "There's no universe that just sitting in front of a screen looking at your own face is better for you."
Jaffee also said that some meetings that people think need to be on video because they involve presentations could actually be conducted audio-only.
"We did this long before Zoom existed for pitch calls," she said. "People used to be good storytellers."
Farr's and Jaffee's criticisms of video conference calls are backed up by a recent academic journal article by Stanford professor Jeremy Bailensonon why people typically find video meetings exhausting.
Bailenson's report, which expands on his Wall Street Journal opinion piece from 2020, argues that the primary cause of "Zoom fatigue" is "nonverbal overload," because people work harder to communicate with body language.
In his newer report, Bailenson said the overload may be caused by aspects of video calls including unnatural and "intense" prolonged eye contact, constantly being able to see yourself, reduced mobility, and unconsciously having to work harder to execute "nonverbal communication."
Bailenson concluded the report with a simple suggestion: "Make 'audio only' Zoom meetings the default, or better yet, insist on taking some calls via telephone."
For Zoom haters like Farr, reports like Bailenson's are vindicating.
"I don't want to see my face. I don't particularly need to see anyone else's face," Farr said. "I certainly don't want to see your face at the expense of my own health and well-being."
