Finding the right balance between work and personal time can be tough, but it’s especially challenging when the e-mail from the office never stops. Even when the volume of off-hours messages isn’t enough to be a serious time drain, it still interrupts personal time. So can just the nagging thought that an e-mail from the boss is likely to show up take a toll? New research shows just that. 
The new findings may be a wake-up call for employers. After all, if employees are suffering “anticipatory stress” that leads to burnout, an employer’s desire for higher productivity may be better served—at least most of the time—by pulling the plug on e-mail to workers who have already put in their day.
Employees need to unplug from work but often don’t have that luxury, according to Liuba Belkin, an associate professor in the College of Business and Economics at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She and William Becker of Virginia Tech and Samantha A. Conroy of Colorado State University conducted the research and presented it in August at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management.
The researchers examined data from 297 survey participants and looked at how after-hours e-mail affects employees’ emotional states. They found that it contributes to the kind of emotional exhaustion that hinders productivity. Previous research has shown the harmful effects of after-hours e-mails that seriously lengthen workdays, but the new research is the first to focus on the harm resulting from just the expectation of work e-mails intruding on personal time, regardless of how much time employees have to spend actually dealing with the messages.
“This whole inability to stop thinking about work leads to stress,” Belkin says.
How employers can help
If employers require long hours and quick responses to be competitive but one of their tools—after-hours e-mail—hinders productivity in the long run, what’s the answer? Belkin says employers have options. For example, some companies have taken the drastic measure of using software that doesn’t allow managers to send e-mail to subordinates after hours.
Less extreme solutions exist, however. Belkin says employers can start solving the problem by communicating their expectations. It may be appropriate for the leadership to tell employees that although they may receive e-mails on the weekends, they shouldn’t feel obligated to respond. Such a message “gives the employee peace of mind,” she says, an assurance that the employee should use off hours to enjoy family time. Another option is to have employees take turns handling after-hours e-mails, Belkin says.
Analyzing an organization’s culture also can help. Some workplaces promote a culture that makes employees think they have to check and respond to after-hours e-mails in order to keep their job or to get ahead. Belkin says such employers need to examine and manage not just their explicit norms but also their culture.
Why the problem
Some individuals prefer strong separation between work and personal time. Others like the flexibility they gain by blending the two. But all workers need some amount of time to rest and recover, Belkin says. Once refreshed, they’re able to be more productive after returning to work.
Although people often can adapt to the demands placed on them, there is still a limit to the cognitive, physical, and emotional resources they can draw on, Belkin says. That’s why even workers who don’t mind blending work and personal time still need time to recuperate.
Employers with an “always on” culture may see short-term productivity gains that are wiped out with long-term productivity losses. So in the long run, Belkin says, organizations are likely to benefit by cutting back on after-hours e-mail.
Some statistics
The research finds the stress associated with after-hours e-mail is widespread. Belkin says 55 percent of the survey participants reported having a hard time detaching from work. Just 8 percent said they had no trouble.
Twenty percent reported a high level of emotional exhaustion, and only half think they successfully manage work and family life. Sixty-five percent of the participants reported that they think their companies’ expectations related to after-hours e-mails are too high.
Some of the survey participants have a high segmentation preference, meaning they prefer a high degree of separation between work and personal time. Others are comfortable blending work and personal time, but 67 percent of the survey participants said they prefer high segmentation.
A workplace culture that demands that employees frequently respond to after-hours e-mail is more damaging to those who prefer high segmentation than it is to those who prefer to blend work and personal time, the researchers found. So, Belkin says, employers that carefully manage after-hours e-mail are in the best position to attract and retain the best talent and therefore be best able to compete.