Many of us, even during hours of legal rest, remain “in touch” with clients, partners, bosses and colleagues. Work does not leave us either at home or on vacation. How does this affect us?
The working day is over, you can go home – but the work follows us. In the evenings, on weekends, on vacation, she looms somewhere nearby and is always ready to break into our lives via mobile phone, email or Zoom. Of course, these are the requirements of today, but how does such a constant inclusion and availability affect us?
A study on this topic was conducted by Jan Detmers and his colleagues from the University of Hamburg1. They suggested that the lack of a clear separation of work and free time should have a negative impact on well-being, since constant stress prevents the employee from recovering both physically and psychologically.
The participants in the study were employees who, on some days, because of work, had to be all the time “in the access zone”, and on other days, at leisure, they could completely belong to themselves. During the experiment, 132 people (most of them men) from 13 companies of various profiles, from IT to transport, at the request of the researchers, made entries in the diary every morning, describing their psychological state.
As it turned out, after a day when they had to be “in touch”, they felt tired and stressed.
What is most interesting, this state was not associated with the number of calls received in free time, their duration and the complexity of the issues discussed. It seems that it was something else: the very expectation of a possible call and, as a result, the feeling that they had lost control over their free time, practically “ate” all the bonuses from the rest.
In addition, 51 participants also measured the level of cortisol. It is a hormone that is a marker of stress. Its level rises sharply upon awakening, this is a kind of preparation for the expected stressful situations of the coming day. The higher the level, the greater the expectation of stress.
It was measured using saliva samples. Immediately after waking up, 15 minutes later, and XNUMX minutes later, the participant had to chew on a cotton ball and then place it in the refrigerator.
The results of the tests found that the level of cortisol upon awakening was higher the next morning after a day spent “in touch”
Previous studies by American psychologists Yong Park, Charlotte Fritz and Steve Jacks have already shown that business contacts in their free time prevent a person from relaxing and disconnecting from professional worries.2. Now it turns out that even waiting for a “business” call in your free time can increase stress. In fact, it would be incorrect to consider this time as non-working, the authors of the study argue.
In organizations that participated in the experiment of German psychologists, the days when the employee should be in touch were pre-specified in the contract. But there are many companies where such a connection is not specified, but is taken for granted. It’s even harder for their employees. The more work intrudes into their non-working time, the less they feel they are in control of themselves in their free time.
However, it would be wrong to blame only new technologies in this situation. It depends on us to a large extent how we will be able to switch from work to leisure, emphasize Yonga Park and her co-authors. For example, they advise you to come up with a ritual for the end of the working day, as well as set clearer boundaries in communication with your colleagues.
1 J. Dettmers et al. «Extended work availability and its relation with start-of-day mood and cortisol». Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, August 2015.
2 Y. Park, C. Fritz, S. Jex «Relationships between work-home segmentation and psychological detachment from work: The role of communication techno logy use at home». Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 2011, vol. 16(4).