Employees at Apple, Google and other Silicon Valley staples are embracing tools that force them to take breaks from email and track their email usage while employers are increasingly encouraging employees to unplug. (Photo: Shutterstock)
June is National Employee Wellness Month–or well-being, if you prefer (but please, not wellbeing). The concept of wellness has evolved over the years, from an initial focus on physical health to one encompassing mental and emotional well-being, and in recent years, financial.
This month, it may be prudent to turn your attention to a fourth component: digital health. It's a topic that's appearing more and more often in the news, a growing concern among tech companies in particular. Employees at Apple, Google and other Silicon Valley staples are embracing tools that force them to take breaks from email and track their email usage while employers are increasingly encouraging employees to unplug.
On the opposite coast, proposed legislation in New York City would give employees the “right to disconnect” and penalize employers who require employees to check email or take calls after business hours. The bill, modeled after legislation passed in France, would be the first of its kind in the U.S.
Today's “always on” workplace mentality, it seems, is bad for employee productivity. According to a recent report by app platform Blind, which aggregated results from various studies on employee burnout, nearly 60 percent of tech workers suffer from burnout. The side effects of burnout–ranging from mental issues such as depression to physical issues such as heart disease–cost employers upwards of $190 billion each year.
“There is an increasing awareness,” former Apple employee Thomas Meyerhoffer told Bloomberg earlier this year. “Every single person from every kind of occupation is talking about this.”
Recognizing the potential damage their products can cause, tech companies aren't just working to improve their employees' digital health but to improve the overall “healthiness” of their products. At the recent Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple unveiled its new “digital health” initiative, which helps users track how much time they spend on their devices or specific apps and set time restrictions. Google unveiled a similar platform in May.
As awareness grows about the harmful effects of technology and potential for addiction, more employers would do well to reconsider not just their expectations when it comes to employees' technology use but also the ways they might encourage healthier habits.
Tech breaks can go beyond email abstinence to hardcore digital detox retreats and temporarily cutting off communication altogether. Less extreme techniques such as phone-free meetings and tech-free mindfulness and meditation breaks are growing in usage, as well.
We will undoubtedly hear more in the coming years about the toll our digital habits are taking on our health and overall productivity. Now, as we turn our attention to employee wellness, is as good of a time as any to start looking at ways to stave off those effects for your employees.
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Emily Payne
Emily Payne is director, content analytics for ALM's Business & Finance Markets and former managing editor for BenefitsPRO. A Wisconsin native, she has spent the past decade writing and editing for various athletic and fitness publications. She holds an English degree and Business certificate from the University of Wisconsin.
