Why would banning emails harm employee wellbeing?

by Miriam Hanna, Director MadlinHanna Consulting

In October, the University of Sussex released a piece of research which suggested employees experienced stress when they were banned from accessing their emails outside of working hours. I take real issue with this research because there is one sentence that makes all the difference which is that the stress is caused by people feeling unable to achieve their work goals. Why should that be the case?

Realistic goals

What goals are employees being given that they are unable to compete within their core and contracted working hours? If the workload on an individual means that they are consistently required to work long hours, as management you are giving them too much to do. I am willing to accept that how productive a person is makes a difference but looking at resource is important as being on email all evening and losing switch off time has an impact on productivity during the day.

Efficiency

Are you undertaking work in the most efficient way? Are you well supported by a team you can delegate to? Before we get replaced by robots, we are only human and can’t do everything in one go so prioritise and push back if you feel there is something you won’t be able to complete with the deadline given. I truly believe in people taking responsibility for their work and an open relationship with a manager can prevent frantic, late nights when a deadline looms.

Move Off Email

Why are we doing so much on email? What happened to meeting people? Phone calls? We have become incredibly reliant on emails and I have to say that in our team, it is a trend we are doing our best to fight. A 15 minute phone call might cover an email conversation that would take days of back and forth. Collaborate with your team by speaking to them not clogging a slack channel that pings at all hours.

Culture of Sacrifice

One thing that I had hoped was a thing of the past was the attitude that working late and logging on whilst on holiday or at birthday parties was normal. That still isn’t the case and in some agencies there is still a badge of honour related to how many major life events have been interrupted by work. The constant access people can have as a result of mobile phones and laptops is increasingly a bad thing in my eyes. It is supposed to be about enabling people to work from anywhere but that hasn’t been reflected in as many company policies as you would hope.

Productivity increases when there is a deadline- why can’t that deadline be the end of your contracted hours? I truly believe in proper balance between work and life. It is the one way to ensure we keep the brightest and best working in the industry.

MadlinHanna Consulting is a recruitment consultancy specialising in corporate affairs, covering public affairs, corporate communications and financial PR. Contact us on 020 8088 4102 for more information or a confidential conversation.