Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 50% of US employees that were surveyed reported answering emails outside of work hours. Since the rise of remote work that came with quarantine the figure has risen by an estimated 8%(DeFilippis et all., 2020). These working systems may look rather harmless with bosses generally believing that it's an employee's responsibility to stay out of their emails during off hours. While an employee can ignore emails sitting in their inbox it can create a level of stress to know something is there, especially when it came from a member of management. This can cause declining mental health for employees and decreased productivity for a company.
Amidst the global pandemic, Portugal made international news for passing laws to protect an employees' right to a healthy work-life balance; Portuguese employers could now face fines for contacting employees after work hours have ended(CNN.com). This legislation arose in response to the large uptick in remote employees who were now faced with the reality of maintaining their own balance in a time of newfound independence. They aren't the only ones doing it either. Across the globe, countries are writing legislation ensuring employees' right to disconnect. And while this may seem like lost work hours for companies, there are also reasons that refraining from sending after-hours emails to your employees is actually a positive.
Studies have shown that employees who receive after-hours emails have increased anxiety, decreased quality of sleep, and lower relationship satisfaction due to apprehension around receiving messages from a supervisor at any moment. Bill Becker, a researcher from Virginia Tech, calls this “anticipatory stress” or the feeling of always being ready to receive a work email after hours. In addition, Becker found that the negative effects of anticipatory stress not only affected these employees, but even extended to their life partners as well.
As stress and anxiety increase, productivity is among the first things to start declining as a result. Work stressors experienced during after-hours time prevents employees from unwinding from the day, in turn causing them to bring more baseline stress over into the next work day. These effects may appear negligible at first, but over time even low-level stress can cause burnout among employees. This stress will continue to build eventually leading to loss of creative and critical thinking skills. Top performers are especially at risk, consisting of those individuals most willing to answer emails outside of business hours.
Reducing anticipatory stress and productivity loss in employees starts with addressing communication expectations within the company. Company executives are encouraged to establish clear guidelines regarding boundaries on internal communications. Having clear plans in place can help employees feel that they can truly relax on their time off without repercussions for missing an email leading to a healthier work life balance and increased productivity. These policies can take many different forms, from having “weekends to disconnect” which is a full weekend where there are no emails sent within a company, to using a program that can monitor and even lock employee emails to insure they aren't being checked outside of regular hours.
Prevalence of after-hours communications encourages employees to respond, proving dedication to their work, at the expense of mental health, productivity, and creative and critical thinking. Success at the expense of employees' mental and physical health is entirely unsustainable. Having clear policies detailing after work communication and helping truly unplug from work can decrease “anticipatory stress” and increase daily productivity.
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