Now, it’s email stress!
View(s):Sending and receiving emails is making our stress levels soar more than ever. New research has found there is a distinct and direct link between stress levels and email use. Professor Tom Jackson, from Loughborough University, studied the physiological and psychological impact of email use on employees at a UK government agency.
He tracked the blood pressure, heart rate and cortisol levels of 30 members of staff, as well as paper-based diaries kept by the employees. Cortisol is a steroid hormone that is released by the adrenal gland in higher quantities when people are stressed.
The findings showed a direct link between email and stress – and indicated that employees are more prone to increased stress when reading and sending emails.
On the other hand, they are less susceptible when retrieving and filing email messages alone. This was indicated not only by raised cortisol levels, but also increased blood pressure and heart rate. For example, the majority of participants – 92 per cent – became fraught, with many recording elevated blood pressure and heart rate readings, during email and phone use.
But researchers also found that employees were glad to receive an email containing useful information, or one thanking them for completed work. However, they became more stressed when they received emails which were irrelevant, which required an immediate response, or which distracted them from their work.
The participants in their diaries also raised a number of adverse effects of email use, such as increased expectations, misinterpretation, alienation and blame culture. However, Professor Jackson believes email is not the enemy. He said: ‘Over the years, email has been the focus of many research studies and is sometimes portrayed as a bad communication medium.
‘Indeed, this study has shown that email causes stress when compared to having email-free time. ‘However, if email is compared to other ways of communicating – which was also observed in this study – email is no worse than any other media. ‘Multi-tasking email alongside other communication media, such as phone and face-to-face meetings, increases the risk of becoming stressed.’
He added: ‘The key to reducing workplace stress is better training for staff on how to manage their communication media, from better diary control to limiting how often they check their email accounts. ‘Stress can lead to long term chronic health conditions such as hypertension, thyroid disease, heart failure, and coronary artery disease so it is vital it is managed.’
© Daily Mail
Follow @timesonlinelk
comments powered by Disqus