Dive Brief:
- Sixty-seven percent of people feel overwhelmed by their inbox, and 82% say they miss important emails because their inboxes are bogged down, a survey released by email service provider Gated, found.
- On average, a work inbox receives 71 emails per day Monday through Friday, the survey found. The sheer volume of messages has even spurred 30% of respondents to completely empty or abandon their inbox at some point.
- Not having the bandwidth to read or respond to every email leaves 74% of workers feeling guilty or stressed.
Dive Insight:
The burden email creates is just one example of how tools meant to make the workplace more productive and efficient can actually hinder workers. A report earlier this year by software company Asana found that U.S. workers use nine apps per day to complete their tasks at work, and 21% said switching between apps made them less efficient at their job, either by decreasing their attention to the task at hand or increasing the number of hours they needed to work.
And some efforts to connect workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, like virtual meetings, are taking a toll. As early as November 2020, 24% of workers surveyed by global staffing firm Robert Half said they found video calls inefficient and would prefer to communicate via other means, like email or the phone. Thirty-eight percent reported having video call fatigue.
Moreso, workers say they are overwhelmed by meetings in general. Forty-six percent of workers included in a September report by transcription company Otter.ai said they had too many unnecessary meetings on their calendars, and five meetings per week could be skipped.
In a previous report, HR experts recommended employers let workers know it’s okay to decline meeting invites that aren’t pertinent to them and offer notes or recaps of meetings for those who can’t attend.
