British Report Details the Stress of Email Communication

WaltonNews writes "British researchers have found that pressures from handling emails throughout the work day cause stress and frustration with workers. Researchers from a pair of collaborating universities have found that heavy email communication causes anxiety, with some workers thinking they checked their email as often as once every fifteen minutes. The reality was much worse. From the article: 'When researchers fitted monitors to their computers, workers were found to be viewing e-mails up to 40 times an hour. About 33 per cent said they felt stressed by the volume of e-mails and the need to reply quickly. A further 28 per cent said they felt "driven" when they checked messages because of the pressure to respond. Just 38 per cent of workers were relaxed enough to wait a day or longer before replying.'"

Personally

[0racle]

I just don't care that much about my job. What's with people stressing out so much about some e-mail?

Frog with no legs becomes deaf.

[Anonymous Coward]

When researchers fitted monitors to their computers, workers were found to be viewing e-mails up to 40 times an hour

Well, duh! I'm guessing that workers without monitors fitted to their computers not only rarely checked their e-mail, but could not do much of anything with their computers.

Re:Personally

[Anonymous Coward]

Think of it this way, it's kind of like the stress of reading /. and the pressure to first post.

Brits worry too much

[peter303]

Most of the "sky is falling" articles come from the UK especially global warming. I immediately discount any news article from UK.

Re:If I don't do it then, I forget

[ginbot462]

> Turn email messages into "To-do" items on your To-Do list, or turn them into items on your calendar.

This item is actually on my TODO list. And that TODO list is also on a larger meta-TODO list. And that meta-list is stored in a binary format whose reader's code looks like // XXX: TODO - write comment about how I need to write a reader to read my meta-TODO list that includes multiple TODO lists one which has an item about replying to email should be put into a TODO list // PS need to learn you can use punctuation and keep commments below 81 chars

Bah!

[Aqua_boy17]

You think e-mail gives you stress?

I've got 4 mod points left and everytime I log onto /. it keeps saying 'Use 'em or lose 'em'. Now that's what I call stress.

Re:wait a day? unheard of!

[tehcyder]

They IM and expect immediate response.

Ring them up and tell them to stop bothering you.

The monitors are the important part

[Jay L]

When researchers fitted monitors to their computers, workers were found to be viewing e-mails up to 40 times an hour.

Workers using computers without monitors checked their e-mail far less often.

Re:Brits worry too much

[ucla74]

In the UK, the sky usually IS falling.