“An ‘always-on’ culture with high expectations to monitor and respond to emails during non-work time may prevent employees from ever fully disengaging from work, leading to chronic stress and emotional exhaustion,” the Academy of Management study’s authors wrote. Dangers of always being readily available through email To identify and prevent employee burnout, business owners and managers should be aware of the downside of employees being available constantly. While you may think it increases productivity to have your employees respond to emails after work and on weekends, encouraging them to stay in constant communication actually hurts their job performance, research suggests.Įmployers damage their employees’ well-being, work-life balance and job performance when they create expectations that work-related emails should be monitored and responded to during non-work hours, according to an Academy of Management study.

This article is for business owners and managers who want to understand the ramifications of employees’ after-hours communication, and for employees seeking tips to avoid checking email after work.These emails may be considered compensable for nonexempt employees. Employers may get into legal trouble for requiring email communication after hours.Health issues such as chronic stress and fatigue are linked to too many responsibilities after standard work hours. There is cause for concern with the always-on culture.Instead of improving efficiency, after-hours emails hurt job performance. Research has shown that expecting employees to answer emails after hours can be detrimental.

Nvda after hours.