How Checking Your Work Email On Your Phone Cancels Out Annual Leave

We all do it. You’re on the train home. Time is lagging. You’re trying to avoid eye contact with anything with a pulse. You’re brain is still in office mode. You take out your phone. You check your email.

Dipping in and out of our work email is a modern reflex many of us can’t help. In-built push notifications scratch at your brain until you physically dismiss them. Employers who think you’re constantly at their beck-and-call are another factor coming into widespread play. After all, it’ll only take a minute, and god forbid something slips through the cracks. Well, something is slipping away – your annual leave and headspace time.

Earlier this month the Telegraph published the findings of a Chartered Management Institute poll which found that four out of five employees work an extra hour every day on handheld devices. For one in ten of those polled, this rose to three hours. More than 1,500 managers were surveyed and when all those hours were added up, it became evident that the majority of people were working an extra 29 days a year on mobiles and tablets. Sobering, isn’t it? Yes, your phone maybe a godsend regards music, watching clips from Nicholas Sparks movies and keeping in touch with friends, but it is also stealing away your personal days.

The survey also delved into how stressed people felt and their ability to turn off. Those working long hours were three times more likely to feel stressed – no surprises there – and those who felt they couldn’t ignore their devices and emails reported that they considered themselves less productive. Most surveyed saw a link between checking mails, long hours and health problems, particularly burnout.

Apparently this work culture is beginning to take its toll on workers? health. The Telegraph references how there has been a spike in neck and muscle pain associated with handheld devices and that most sick days in the UK are related to back, neck and muscle pain.

Do you feel like the expectation to always be ‘on’ when it comes to email is eating away at your time?

Via The Telegraph