Earlier this year, France passed a labor reform law that banned checking emails on weekends. New research—to be presented next week at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management—suggests other countries might do well to follow suit, for the sake of employee health and productivity.
[...] Using data collected from 365 working adults, [Liuba] Belkin [of Lehigh University], and her colleagues [William Becker of Virginia Tech and Samantha A. Conroy of Colorado State University] look at the role of organizational expectation regarding "off" hour emailing and find it negatively impacts employee emotional states, leading to "burnout" and diminished work-family balance, which is essential for individual health and well-being. The study—described in an article entitled "Exhausted, but unable to disconnect: the impact of email-related organizational expectations on work-family balance"—is the first to identify email-related expectations as a job stressor along with already established factors such as high workload, interpersonal conflicts, physical environment or time pressure.
[...] Interestingly, they found that it is not the amount of time spent on work emails, but the expectation which drives the resulting sense of exhaustion. Due to anticipatory stress—defined as a constant state of anxiety and uncertainty as a result of perceived or anticipated threats, according to research cited in the article—employees are unable to detach and [therefore] feel exhausted regardless of the time spent on after-hours emails.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @04:57AM
I stopped checking email on the weekends. They phoned me on Saturday. I turned off my phone on Sunday. I found ALL CAPS YELLING in my inbox on Monday morning. On Tuesday they came to my office instead. I closed my office door on Wednesday. On Thursday they banged on my office door but I ignored them. When I arrived on Friday they fired me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @05:06AM
While an employee, had you anticipated the negative impact upon your well-being?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @05:14AM
Negative impact? Are you kidding me? I have SO MUCH FREE TIME now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:59AM
And they STILL did not get the answer to their problem, which I would have gladly provided, if they had asked during working hours, instead of my private time. Now I work for their competition, who are much more polite, and will kick my former employers ass. So all you asshole employers out there, remember, karma is a bitch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @05:21AM
I am with you up until Monday morning.
They time they pay you for, you have already sold yourself for "compensation". You are whoring your skills out. We all do.
It was a sticking point with one of my prospective employers that wanted me to be "on call", and when I replied that I wanted extra compensation for being on call, and each segment of "on-call" responsibility negotiated on an individual basis, and compensation to recover my commuting expenses, they just said something like "thank-you!, Next!" as my resume went back "into file".
I was just trying to be honest, as I had no intention of becoming a caged animal.
Had I had just told them what they wanted to hear, then just blacklisted them on the phone, things would have been OK, as we all know its OK to blame anything on a machine - even if said machine is only following my instructions. Its just the business way of doing things these days.
One thing has become very clear: when dealing with a lot of people who have had business leadership training, you gotta lie if you need the job. If you tell 'em the truth, they will find someone else who has the business sense to tell them what they wanna hear.... even if they know right then they have no intention whatsoever to deliver.
(Score: 1) by driven on Thursday July 28 2016, @05:44AM
You're better off being honest than getting hired into a job you despise. If there is a large mismatch between your value system and theirs, sparks are sure to fly.
That's why I don't even bother applying at places that have a reputation for grueling hours -- that's not the kind of life I want. If I absolutely needed the cash and jobs were few and far between then I'd not have a lot of choice, but it would definitely be as short a term as possible.
I'm not sure what kind of job you were going for, but I've always managed to be honest. Maybe in sales or executive positions things are different - I don't know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @05:57AM
That's why I don't even bother applying at places that have a reputation for grueling hours -- that's not the kind of life I want.
I hear ya. I'm not bothering to apply anywhere until the one-hour work week becomes law. Because that's the kind of life I want.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:12AM
Slaves defending slave owners. Classic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:16AM
Universal basic income gonna fix every thing. Any day now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:22PM
That isnt gonna do a goddam thing because France is about multiculturalism, which means Islamic savages are going to be beheading, raping, and bombing you because you're so progressive and tolerant while a militarized police force roams your streets and buttstocks you in the teeth for not following orders while your leaders tell you that random terror attacks are the new normal, and as tolerant progressives, to get used to them.
How does that affect your well-being, weekend emails or not?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:02AM
I had one of these rotation jobs. Where every 8 weeks or so it was 3 weeks of 24/7 phone duty. You can plan nothing. At any time you are glued to a phone and computer for the next 16 hours straight. Vacation? Forget it. Go out to eat? Forget it. Swing by the store? Maybe, but get your ass on the phone ASAP. Jury duty? Sure but make sure you trade with someone else.
They moved all of our jobs to another location. I took the buy out (6 figures). My boss who was the manager of the rotation group also took the buy out. I was talking to him a few days ago. "Do you miss it?" "I have spent the past 4 months doing nothing I have not even looked for a job I am just decompressing from the stress of it". I am doing the same. I know at least 8 other dudes doing the same thing. None of us have got new jobs. Some are 'kinda looking' but nothing serious. Every fool out there I tell this to says the same thing "good for you!". No, its not good. This sucks!
Though in the past week I have realized I am becoming a bit of a shut in and need to get out of this house. The littlest thing is starting to set me off where as last year I would have went 'pfft no biggie'. I have taken to reverse engineering a 22 year old windows game and re-writting it in C#.
Did I sign up for 24/7 rotation? No. It just one day 'became' part of my job. When you are making 50% than the mean for programmers in your area you grit your teeth and say 'ok'.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:20AM
I am becoming a bit of a shut in
That's not a negative thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:27AM
For you maybe. For me it is.
These 4 walls hold nothing for me and the world filtered to thru the lens of reddit or TV is a terrible thing. Like I said it is making me a bit cranky :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:34AM
Whats the game?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:56PM
simtower
There are several open source versions. One of them being a web one. They look abandoned. I have 0 intention on releasing it into the wild. I just wanted to brush up a bit on C# and fiddle around with reverse engineering.
Already found something interesting to add to my 'hmm thats odd'. I can not get the resources out of the exe with my normal tools. Not sure if it is a 16 bit windows vs 64 bit windows thing. Have not got to the main loop yet. But I am sure I will someday :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:36AM
I interviewed for a sysadmin job recently, and I happened to mention a game server I've been running.
"Did you say game?"
"Yes it's a game server and I reduced the CPU load by replacing some system calls in the event loop."
"For a game."
"That's right, and it's amazing what you can learn about the kernel by reverse engineering a game from 1998."
"Yeaaaah, games are for losers. Next!!"
I didn't get the job.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday July 28 2016, @09:04AM
I often run into this kind of thinking. With you, its games, with me its microcontrollers, such as Arduino-compatibles ( I roll my own on the fly ), sometimes coupled with propeller chips.
The main thing I like about these is I trust them. If I design this into something, I know full good and well I won't be called back next year because a midnight upgrade broke it. Or have to sign some onerous EULA giving someone else a backdoor, while holding them harmless for anything they do.
However, many higher-ups see these as toys.
Since when has a thingie that's supposed to do something like weld a wire needed a fullbore high performance computer? It used to be done with a bunch of timers and relays. Now, I have ways of doing it simply with a microcontroller chip, using software that kids learn in high school, so finding some kid to turn the whole shebang over to isn't all that hard.
Highly paid guys often really think big.... and expensive!
I hate to call in a backhoe to plant a shrub.
Now, some of the hobbyist implementations leave a little to be desired as far as noise immunity and packaging go... so that's why I roll my own to order. Its not all that expensive to send PCB out for fab anymore. Then I get a board that precisely fits the requirement. Usually saves quite a ratsnest of wiring when all level translation is taken care of. There is a lot of new PCB connector technology coming from China that I use to make really neat wiring harnesses.
If they need it "on the wire", I can always put an RS-485 link onto the board and make it look like a MODBUS SCADA, so I can use off-the-shelf software on the "big iron" end to talk to these... multidrop... so I do not have a mess of cabling or diagnostic problems. Talk to it with the big iron or a laptop.
The main problem with my way of doing it is I do have significant front-end implementation time. But I know once its in, it will run until its deliberately decommissioned. And I know if its some little thing that needs to be changed in the program, the kid I leave in charge of it will most likely implement a good fix, as most of my stuff except the Propeller stuff is really beginner-level stuff.
I would really like to grow the Propeller side of my stuff, and hopefully get enough paid work to be able to take on someone to work with me - and him take on Propeller code full time. My strengths are mostly in the hardware/interface design.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by evil_aaronm on Thursday July 28 2016, @04:19PM
I'm a big fan of the Propeller, too. I don't care for the native language, Spin, but that's a fun little chip. Like anything else, it's limited in its range of applications, but in those areas where it would be useful, it fits well.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday July 31 2016, @07:55AM
Yup - quite limited, but also what it does - it does very well.
My favorite tasks for it has been CRT image generation, serial protocol ( UART, DMX, Manchester, custom ), stepper motor controller, and other things I used to have to use a lot of glue logic to implement. This baby handles seven time critical operations simultaneously, while I normally reserve the eighth cog for myself for debug and an I2C link to the Arduino.
One of the things I am toying with is programming one to correlate battery voltage to the position of the engine crank, so as to give me a running display of each cylinder's contribution to the engine's torque output. I have a magnetic pickoff from a gear on the engine to derive the crankshaft position from, as well as a piezoelectric transducer on one of the fuel injector lines to get a keying signal for which cylinder I want to consider number 1. Being its a Diesel engine, I do not have all that many electrical signals or controls available, but the engine does have that one crankcase magnetic reluctance signal that normally drives the engine tach.
This is why I would love to know more about the financial side, i.e. how to get paid, so I could hire on more people. I think this would make a fine product for the farming community that use these old engines on the farm, and would like to know with minimal installation effort how well their engine's health is. If a problem is brewing, which cylinder, and maybe give them a heads-up before catastrophic failure. At least they it might give them a few month's warning of a valve failure, head gasket leak, injector problem, or some other problem that gradually gets worse before *bam*!
I am free to experiment on my old van that uses one of those old farm engines as a development testbed.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by driven on Thursday July 28 2016, @05:24AM
I can't make any use of the self-help articles out there that tell you to check your email once or twice a day. And don't check your email first thing in the morning - do the "important" stuff then.
I've never had the luxury! When you're in a position where many people count on you to get _their_ work done, and servers must remain online, automation processes functional, questions answered, etc. that all breaks down if you don't stay on top of your email.
Yes, it is draining and I can sympathize with the "anticipatory stress" mentioned in the article. I just can't see any way around it. I know when someone else takes 2 or 3 days to respond to an email of mine, it really affects my productivity. I've feel a similar kind of stress when I'm waiting for their response so I can take action and resume what I was doing before. In the meantime I juggle other tasks, pushing each one a bit further along. Keep in mind I'm working with people in different locations and timezones so walking over to their desk isn't always possible.
Ticket tracking systems can help keep things straight better than email, but it's impractical to have everything turned into a ticket.
As far as checking work email from home, I mostly manage to avoid that but of course there are exceptions.
Anyone in a similar situation who has found a solution?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:18AM
Sounds like you don't have enough people in there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:22AM
Get out of the industry while you still have your sanity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @07:03AM
Too late. The pretty pink unicorns have come begging me to fuck them. They don't want to be virgins anymore. I keep telling them I won't do them because they'll cease to exist as soon as they lose their virginity. Why won't the pretty pink unicorns listen to reason.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday July 28 2016, @07:09AM
We've probably all been in that position, but some, (most?) find our way out of it as careers progress. Some just hand it off, others fix it.
I remember being on call for large scale data-center production runs that took hours. If something crashed I had to get up, drive 20 miles, figure out what went wrong, fix it and start recovery. All the while humoring the bastard operators from hell who "owned" the computer in those days.
Later, as I gained authority in the particular job I determined not to have to do this, nor assign someone else to do it. The whole thing was a stupid clattering fragile mess. We spent about three months doing a total restructure such that ANY failure was fixed such that it would AUTOMATICALLY roll back, self recover, and leave the system in a usable state where our users could use the system the next day and we could fix what failed and restart from that point.
In other words, you are in a hell of your own making (or taking - in the case of an imposed job situation). One that, given some leeway and authority, you will find a way to work your way free of the pointless hand-holding (of people and systems). But only if you stop thinking of the job as something that can't be changed, and of yourself as someone who can't be replaced.
You have to take ownership of the whole situation, and make it work for you, instead of just being one of its cogs.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by driven on Thursday July 28 2016, @10:42PM
'You have to take ownership of the whole situation, and make it work for you, instead of just being one of its cogs.'
True, and it helps to be reminded of that from time to time. Cheers. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @08:20AM
It's on time frame and expectation.
Anything gotten to me at the start of the day gets addressed that day (even if I have to stay late). Anything that is towards the end of the day gets addressed the next day (barring emergency). Emails are answered at the start and the end of the day. I accept no calls at home unless it is an emergency.
The thing is if my position is so important to require around the clock hours, I should be paid accordingly, otherwise it is exploitation. And the only way I can guarantee when something will be accomplished is if I can plan my workload (and delegate if need be). I can't do that if I'm pulled seven different directions at once.
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Thursday July 28 2016, @12:19PM
Well that's your first problem: you can't help yourself because yourself sucks. [youtube.com] (≧∇≦)/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @12:47PM
Not in IT but we used to have a guy who we eventually found out only checked his email like once a day. Everyone was getting annoyed that questions were not getting answered in a timely manner and it was holding up several other people on the project team. Finding out that he was rarely checking his email and often ignoring the phone just led to him getting an ongoing parade of engineers hunting him down at his desk and bothering his boss when we couldn't find him which led to just more pressure on him than if he just checked his damn email more frequently.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday July 28 2016, @08:35PM
I can't make any use of the self-help articles out there that tell you to check your email once or twice a day. And don't check your email first thing in the morning - do the "important" stuff then.
I've never had the luxury! When you're in a position where many people count on you to get _their_ work done,
Stop right there! I suggest letting all your calls go to voice mail where you have a long, detailed message about the steps they need to take to get a response. Most will lose track before they get to answer and just hang up. By all means check your e-mail early. Answer every one with a slew of questions that will require them to spend a longer time replying than it would for them to figure it out themselves. Sort of a cross between Socrates and Wally (from Dilbert). This can use up quite a bit of your time, but you can claim you were helping others and should they be successful, you can claim you worked on that project.
(Score: 1) by driven on Thursday July 28 2016, @10:39PM
What you suggest sounds similar to a thought I had: there should be some cost to a "transaction" so that people will consider whether they really need to go through with it. If the cost is zero then nobody will have any qualms about asking me for help about, well, everything. One question I like to respond with to people who over-use my help is this: what have you tried so far? I don't like to answer a question with a question too often, as that is one thing that really irritates me (especially when I'm waiting for a reply from another timezone and the reply I get is a question they could have answered for themselves given just a little thought, or they could have at least replied to the part of the email that they did fully understand).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @08:43AM
I think it might be the *expectations* that make the stress, rather than the email itself.
I run a research facility in a university. We're crazy busy year-round satisfying people's research needs, and I answer emails and do practical work at all sorts of times of day and night.
But I'm left to get on with it by the department management. No-one sets performance goals or times I have to be at work or even keeps a check on holiday. I duck in and out when I need to look after children or get bits of DIY done at home. I probably work 40-50 hours a week and get paid an ok but not industry level wage (c. £37k)
So work is just a part of my lifestyle like all the other things and I enjoy it. The facility gets a lot of praise for working well, despite how long people sometimes have to wait because of the workload. If someone has a problem in the middle of the night, I want to know right away; not at 9am the next day. Likewise, if I've got a convenient hour in the evening to catch up with email, then I feel *less* stressed for doing that, knowing that I've helped someone progress and generally helped the reputation of our department.
Is the problem with work email really just work expectations, lack of autonomy and intrusive management?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @08:47AM
*ahem* Seems they think the same. I should have RTFS :)
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Thursday July 28 2016, @01:13PM
other countries might do well to follow suit, for the sake of employee health and productivity.
Marijuana is bad for you, too. Let's ban everything that's bad for people.
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Thursday July 28 2016, @01:54PM
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @04:10PM
"365"? Really? No connection to any well-known email product?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 29 2016, @12:17AM
Email expectations are abstract. They can not make any impact at all. It's like suggesting that progressivism can lick your soul clean - entirely nonsensical.
Perhaps what you meant was that there might be some kind of negative effect?
Next time you ask a medium to talk to George Carlin, get his opinion. I bet he agrees.