Checking Your Emails After Work Damages Your Health

Do yourself and your family a favor and don’t check your work email on the weekends anymore. Virginia Tech University and Pamplin Business College researchers found people who check work emails after they’ve left the office and as soon as they wake up underestimate how bad it really is for their health and relationships. Study co-author William Becker explains, “The competing demands of work and non-work lives present a dilemma for employees, which triggers feelings of anxiety and endangers work and personal lives.” This anxiety was found to extend to partners and children as well. He adds that there’s growing evidence that “flexible work boundaries” type situations often turn into “work without boundaries,” where bosses assume staff will never switch off. Becker says policies that reduce expectations to monitor electronic communication outside of work would be the ideal fix for this issue.