Work Messages After Hours Aren't Harmless — Research Says They're A Health Risk
I couldn't take the 11pm notifications anymore, so I finally quit.
Keshaun Slevinsky | Unsplash Last Tuesday evening, I was cozy on my couch after a stressful workday. It was after 9 pm. I took my phone and saw the WhatsApp notification symbol. I checked.
It was from a work-related group. A colleague had announced at 8:14 pm that they had added another colleague to the group. Another colleague had responded a few minutes later, welcoming them to the group. Dang.
The after-hours work messages were a painful reminder of my work stress. That cozy feeling was replaced by an awkward feeling in my stomach. Bye-bye, recovery.
Once more, I sent a message asking to respect recovery time and to avoid sending messages outside of office hours. Nobody answered. But at least I made my point. And I know that I’ll quit my job in a few months, too. The lack of boundaries is one of many reasons for my decision.
Receiving work-related messages after hours, on weekends, or during Christmas holidays is not uncommon, and it bothers me.
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I don’t check my work email or Teams messages outside of work hours, but WhatsApp is different because I have my private contacts there.
I work in academia, surrounded by people who live for their jobs. They work countless hours every day and don’t stop on weekends. Many don’t even take proper vacations.
For me, it’s completely okay that they love their work so much. But not everyone is the same. I was like this at some point, but I’m not anymore.
My job is a significant source of stress, and I get angry when someone interrupts my downtime. And it’s not just my perception. Science backs it up.
Recovery from work: The importance of psychological detachment
Psychological detachment is what happens when you’re neither physically nor mentally occupied with your work. This physical and mental distance from work is essential for recovery, and therefore, it’s also critical to employee well-being.
Work-related interruptions during recovery time, initiated by the worker or by others who don’t respect your recovery time (as in my case), prevent you from detaching from work.
They limit your capacity to replenish your energy and resources for the next workday, and in the long run, this can affect both mental and physical health.
How smartphones affect recovery from work
Smartphones are undoubtedly useful devices. A study from 2013 reported that workers valued increased autonomy thanks to mobile devices, and that they felt their phones supported them in their professional commitments because they could work from anywhere and at any time.
So far, so good. But the same study also reported the negative side associated with smartphone use: the pressure to be constantly engaged.
The study authors referred to this as the “autonomy paradox.” On the one hand, electronic devices make you more independent regarding when and where you work. On the other hand, they trap you in a loop of always being connected.
And it’s not only about checking for new messages. There’s this urgent pressure to respond immediately. Researchers term this telepressure.
While a quicker response latency can speed up decisions and make work processes more dynamic, it comes at a cost to workers due to the interference with their recovery time. Work-related communication technology use after hours contributes to emotional exhaustion.
So, mobile devices have made psychological detachment from work more difficult. Bottom line:
Smartphones and other mobile devices are here to stay, but it’s also clear that they can disrupt people’s recovery from work, with severe long-term health consequences.
In a world with ever-increasing indices of stress and burnout, employers should be educated about this topic and raise awareness among workers about the importance of detaching from work and allowing others to do the same.
This quick, innocent WhatsApp message you send to a colleague after hours? It’s not that innocent after all. Not interfering with others’ recovery time is a sign of respect.
Patricia Schmidt is a Doctor of Psychology, a Neuroscientist, and a writer on Medium and other platforms. She primarily writes about Psychology and the brain, and she also serves as a ghostwriter for these topics.
