A quick response to your boss’s email after hours may keep in good standing at work. But it may also hasten burnout, new research suggests.
Researchers at Northern Illinois University have even coined the term, “telepressure,” to describe the urge to respond immediately to emails. The definition also includes repeatedly thinking about the need to return a note to a colleague or jot an email back to the boss, the
Wall Street Journal reports.
“You have trouble cognitively letting it go,” said Larissa K. Barber, an assistant professor of psychology who helped conduct the new study.
Barber and a colleague authored a paper linking burnout to a preoccupation with work communication — via email and texts. Workers who experience higher levels of telepressure are more likely to agree with statements like “I have no energy for going to work in the morning” and “I feel like my batteries are dead,” the researchers found.
In addition to feeling fatigued, they also tended to be more unfocused and unable to think clearly.
The researchers surveyed 303 individuals who reported how often they respond to email during weekdays, weekends, vacation days, and sick days. Participants were also asked to pull up the two most recent messages they had sent in response to incoming email; they told researchers when the messages were received and when they replied.
Employees fixated on responding to emails had poorer sleep quality and were more likely to miss work for health reasons, according to the study, to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.
“This could be something [employees] succumb to because they’re nervous about what their social standing is in the workplace,” Barber said.
Setting company policies can help, she said. Bosses should say, for example, that employees are expected to respond within eight hours to a message received during the workday or within 48 hours to a message received on the weekend.
Instead of requesting information “ASAP,” bosses can also spell out an exact deadline in their queries.
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