Experts suggest that there is a deep consequence on the psychological states of employees if firms continue to send emails during the holidays. According to the study, people who still work even in festive events, including Christmas, may have negative impacts on their mental and physical health. The research also emphasized that disconnection from tasks and other duties should be required after workdays.
Work From Home, Holidays, and Psychological Health of Employees
LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES: Los Angeles resident Ina Buckner wears reindeer ears for Christmas eve and makes a telephone call as she waits in line to check in for her flight at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) 24 December 2003 as security has been raised to the highest level in two years. French authorities cancelled Air France flights to Los Angeles 24 December 2003 after the US embassy in Paris warned it feared they might be used for terrorist attacks.
Work from home setup had been a popular environment during the months that passed under the pandemic. Many people were pushed to work in a home-based office due to the multiple threats to public health brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. With that said, both the employees and companies are expecting to do a lot of work in a flexible amount of time, even on weekends or holidays.
However, experts found that several circumstances could occur following the over-extensive shifts and holiday schedules. Like in the upcoming Christmas, people are expected to do their jobs under the same workdays as needed by their employers. Although working and earning on holidays might seem better for the working population, the authors of the study warned about its potential mental and physical effects.
According to a collaborative study by the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization, 745,000 deaths in 2016 were caused by long working hours. Among the diseases that raised the mortality rate by 29 percent since 2000 were stroke and ischemic heart disease. The separate research was published in the journal Environment International, titled "Global, regional, and national burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke attributable to exposure to long working hours for 194 countries, 2000-2016: A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury."
University of South Australia experts led the study on how working on holidays can drive people into having psychological problems. The investigation was made possible through the help of over 2,000 individuals from 40 various universities across Australia. Each participant holds either a professional or academic role in the institutes.
DailyMail reported that among the information gathered, working on emails during Christmas could equate to having mental distress, burnout, and even failure of physical health. In addition, doing jobs outside workdays could lead to the disruption of family bonds.
ALSO READ: Depression and Anxiety Tend to Manifest in People Who Sits Excessively, Study Says
Sending Emails During Holidays and Off Schedules Contribute to Psychological Distress
Workdays had been pretty much unconventional for many due to the strict guidelines imposed in many countries. On the other hand, the advancements in the digital age did not fail to anchor work from home jobs. It maintained the jobs in home-based offices and made workloads convenient for companies and team members.
But psychology expert Amy Zadow of the University of South Australia said in a report by The Conversation that digitalization of the corporate world only paved the way for many employees to work in exceeding the hours they signed up for. The expert emphasized that this kind of setup also blurs the distinction between holidays and workdays.
Zadow explained that the unrecognized boundaries of contact hours during the pandemic hinder many individuals to recover from their full-time workdays. Among the basic activities that are being missed because of working past the allotted schedules are physical exercise as well as communications with family and peers. Eliminating these simple but significant breathers could lead to the burnout of an employee.
Among the participants of the study, 26 percent said that they feel required to respond to work-related matters through emails, chats, and voice calls, even if they are off schedule or enjoying leisure days. Fifty-seven percent of the participants also confirmed that they tend to exchange digital communications even at night time. Another 36 percent said that their company normalized an immediate response for any digital communications.
Collectively, the study found that 56 percent of the participants who were still connected to their jobs even after workdays had higher psychological distress, 61 percent were inflicted with higher emotional exhaustion, and 28 percent had poor physical health. The comprehensive study was published in the UniSA's Centre for Workplace Excellence, titled "Digital communication and work stress in Australian University Staff: a multilevel study."
RELATED ARTICLE: Why Kids Have Anxiety and How Adults Could Support Them
Check out more news and information on Psychology in Science Times.
