No employee enjoys receiving after-hours work-related emails. But some enjoy it less than others.
That's what a University of Texas-Arlington study of 341 working adults found when it asked them to record their emotional responses for one week when they looked at an after-hours email from work.
The researchers said two clear responding groups emerged, which they dubbed segmentors and integrators.
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"The segmentors wanted to keep their personal and work lives separate. Not surprisingly, that was the category of participant who was most negatively impacted when facing after business hours communications," the researchers reported. "The integrators were the participants who wanted to know what was going on at work when they received an email or text. They got angry as well when receiving communications but it didn't interfere with their personal lives."
In other words, the curiosity about what's going on moment-to-moment at work outweighed the anger felt by the integrators. The segmentors just wanted to be left alone after they left the office.
Not surprisingly, the study reported that the more "abusive" the tone of the email, the more volatile was the negative response of the reader. And emails that required a lot of unexpected work also didn't go over very well.
"Smartphones and the accompanying culture of 'always on' has made after-hours communication ubiquitous," said Rachel Croson, dean of the College of Busines. "But, like everything else in business, it can be done well or badly, and implementation is critical for success. This study informs leaders not just whether and when, but also how to communicate with employees."
The full research report can be found here as it appeared in the Academy of Management Journal.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
