How often do you check your emails? Go on, be honest.
Do you check them straight away when you wake up in the morning? Perhaps when you’re out for dinner with loved ones? Or maybe even while you’re at the gym?
As much as we try to deny it, our work inevitably creeps into our personal lives.
Checking your emails after work may seem harmless, but a new study has shown that it can actually be bad for your health, well-being and your relationships.
The study, which was published in the Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings found that employees who felt the need to respond to work emails outside of business hours report higher levels of stress and lower levels of relationship satisfaction.
For the research, 142 full-time workers and their significant others were surveyed about their employers’ expectations around email.
While the employees did not report lower relationship satisfaction when expectations and anxiety about email were high, their significant others did.
The researchers also found that these expectations led employees to “more frequent monitoring” of their emails, with some checking them as often as every few minutes.
Speaking to INSIDER about the findings co-author William Becker suggested that organisations make their expectations around email as clear as possible in order to reduce the negative impacts.
”If you never disconnect from work, you can never get out of the work mindset and recharge and that ultimately hurts your well-being and relationships.”
So, the next time you’re thinking about checking your work email when you’re on holidays or just spending some time with your partner, stop and think how it might affect them.
