We Need to Talk About Zoom Poops
Long video calls and chronic digestive issues don’t mix
Sammy Nickalls, a writer based in Pennsylvania, often has to poop immediately before a Zoom call. “I always end up thinking to myself, ‘Oh God, do I have time to take care of this before the call?’ and ‘WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING?’”
Nickalls is experiencing what for most of us is a new phenomenon: the dreaded Zoom poop. As the pandemic forced more people to transition from an office setting to their new work-from-home life, crucial bathroom routines were suddenly upended. Folks who used to regularly poop at, say, 7:00 after a morning run but before their commute to work no longer had that built-in structure around which they could build their bathroom habits. They did, however, face a new stressor: the dreaded video call.
Across the internet, memes and anecdotes abound in which people agonize about their new Zoom poops, in which they feel the sudden urge to use the restroom shortly before or during a Zoom call. This can be an aggravating experience, but it can also be a painful one: Holding it in is uncomfortable and even distressing, especially for people with chronic digestive issues, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
I wanted to know what it was about Zoom, specifically, that seemed to instigate this unexpected need to go. As someone with IBS, working from home is a huge relief. Having to run to the cramped women’s restroom and sit on the uncomfortable toilet for 10-plus minutes was embarrassing and anxiety-inducing, so when I left my office job and started working from home, I was instantly more comfortable, and my stomach pains and bathroom anxiety evaporated. Yet many people have the opposite reaction when working from home, and communicating via video call stimulates their bowels more than sitting in an uncomfortable conference room might.
“In a working environment, I trained myself to just do it at 9 a.m. or 6 p.m. on the dot either before I left or got home. If for any reason I had to deviate from that, I was screwed,” says Noreen, who works for a game studio in Toronto and requested that…
