Managing technology

Engaging with email has become one of the most stressful activities in the workplace. People spend a high proportion of their working time on email (Hearn, 2019), particular for people who work remotely. As email use increases, productivity worsens and the risk of burnout and disengagement rises.

There is also growing awareness that failing to switch off from email during evenings, weekends and holidays can be a major threat to practitioners’ work-life balance and wellbeing. Many organisations now offer guidelines on managing emails in a healthy way. Below are examples of strategies that can be implemented at the organisational and individual level.

How to be ‘e-resilient’

• Develop an organisational policy on email use and etiquette, with input from practitioners.

• Remember that email is a key part of the job, particularly when people are working at home, so should be included in job descriptions and when estimating workload.

• Lead by example: leaders are powerful role models for email behaviour. Unless it is an emergency, do not send emails out of hours (or use the delay function).

• Consider limiting (or even banning) the use of the ‘reply all’ function.

• Limit the use of ‘OK’ and ‘thank you’ emails – instead, use ‘thank you in advance’.

• Encourage people to review their email strategies – are they purposeful and efficient, or reactive and habitual?

• Process and clear an email whenever you check it, rather than intend to return to it later.

• Switch off email notifications – they can cause stress and anxiety.

• Be aware that ‘switching’ between email and other types of work can add up to two hours to your working day.

• Use blocks, filters and folders and keep up with digital housekeeping (e.g. maintaining folders, deleting files, etc.)

• Manage other people’s expectations: an ‘out of office’ notification should mean just that.

• Consider picking up the phone if emails are >3 paragraphs, or if messages fill the screen (>2 paras).

• Remove email from your phone and other personal devices, or else have a separate phone for work.

• Develop ‘rules of engagement’: set boundaries and decide when you will read emails and when you will switch off.

• Take email vacations – disconnect for half a day a week, or even longer.

Based on a systematic review of research studies, Russell et al. (2023) highlighted some key actions to inform best practice in managing emails to mitigate the risks to wellbeing and job performance.

These involve communicating and adhering to work-email access boundaries (e.g. uses automatic replies, delay send functions out of hours, and removing pressure for employees to respond to emails out of hours), regularly triaging emails (e.g. checking and dealing with email often and explicitly providing employees with time to deal with work email), sending work-relevant email (e.g. providing training on good work-email practice), and being clear and considerate in email exchanges (e.g. being polite, concise with clearly actionable points and intentions).