Dive Brief:
- While work-life balance gets a lot of buzz these days, new data released today found that U.S. employees are spending a great deal of time checking work email after hours.
- In fact, according to survey findings from Samanage, a Software as a Service (SaaS) enterprise service management provider, a large portion of workers are spending far more time emailing outside the office than they do on a vacation.
- Among the 1,500 U.S. adults surveyed in the “Email Overload Survey,” Samanage found that 35% check work-related email at least one hour a day outside of work hours, totaling more than 30 days of extra work annually. If you figure the average U.S. worker receives 10 days of vacation per year (according to SHRM research), employees are spending triple the amount of time emailing for work after typical work hours versus taking vacation.
Dive Insight:
Cord Silverstein, vice president of Marketing at Samanage, says the research clearly shows that Americans have a hard time putting down their mobile devices and stepping away from email, as respondents reported checking their work email instead of sleeping or eating in some cases.
Nearly one in five noted that they wake up to check work email “very often,” while close to a quarter of respondents check email “very often” at dinner time. Millennials are the biggest offenders in both categories.
According to the survey, the top two reasons people check work email after hours are to “stay organized” and “feel connected to work,” though 20% expressed negative feelings toward opening their inbox outside the office, saying they felt “overwhelmed” and “frustrated." When it comes to turning off the tap, so to speak, 40% would like to have senders only flag emails that need a response, while 13.7% would like to have all work emails restricted to work hours.
The problem has largely been noted. France, in fact, passed a law early this year that says workers have a "right to disconnect" when not at the office.
