Why Should Managers or Employee Check the Email 24x7 - Assignment Example

Why should Managers or Employee check the email 24x7? Table of Contents Introduction 3 Background Study 3 Discussion 5 Conclusion 9 Reference 10 Introduction The primary goal of this group assignment is to critically assess the justification of 24x7 email communication at work. The study began with forming our assignment group which consisted of five group members, where we needed to engage in a group activity to discuss about the given topic. The group activity involved discussing either for or against the notion that 24x7 email communication should be practised in an organization. The group members are also supposed to justify their statement with sufficient evidences from relevant articles and facts. In order to study the research background, our group studies the basic theories of communication in an organization. After a thorough discussion the group members converged in common inference that communication among employees is vital in an organization in order to maintain a proper work flow. In an organization each employee is a part of a bigger employee network. The work allocation must be communicated among the employees in order to have a clear idea of the work progress in the desired direction. Communication among employees has evolved over the years, from verbal and written communication to email and instant messaging. Even though the mode of communication has changed to ease off our efforts at workplace, it also has put a significant effect at our personal life. This essay reflects on the concept of checking work emails all the time and how email communication has changed the way we communicate at our workplace. I will also discuss about the group members’ individual contribution in the discussion and how I have inferred my opinion from the group activity. Background Study In order to collect relevant theories regarding organizational communication and the use of email communication in work place, the group members collected several articles from relevant journals. From the collected data, we tried to highlight the important factors and outcomes related to a proper organizational communication. One of my colleagues pointed out that Spaho (2011) has emphasized on the importance of organizational communication, and how it is an important factor for the organization’s success. He mentioned that miscommunication or poor communication can lead to poor relationship between the managers and the employees, which in turn can result in internal conflicts. I further added my opinion that a proper communication from the managers gives the right direction to the employees, which results in increase in their efficiency. Likewise, regular communication from the employees’ end also allows the managers to have clear idea of the work progress, which helps them to take the right decisions. However, another colleague established a different perspective by pointing out an article by Burg (2013) where it was mentioned that business communication is not limited to face to face interaction anymore. It has shifted to electronic communication medium, which has made workplace communication easier. Communication via emails is the most popularly used communication medium in an organization. It helps the organization to keep track of all the communications by email chains, which allows the management to avoid any disputes caused by miscommunication. I immediately contradicted his point by highlighting the article of Waller and Ragsdell (2012) where it was mentioned that an employee devotes a significant amount of his/her personal time in email communication, outside work hours. This as a result affects the work life balance. I further added that Hair, Ramsey and Renaud (2007) mentioned in their work that email communication can put severe work and mental pressure on an employee as the incoming emails demands immediate information processing and responding. They also stated that stress out of information overload can also be counted as a short coming of 24x7 email communication. After establishing two strong statements in the discussion I started feeling confident about myself. However I had no idea about the knowledge base of other group members. At first I was dissatisfied with the group formation as all of my close friends are in different groups, but as the group activity progressed I realized that working with people who I do not know may act as an interesting challenge for me. As the discussion progressed, another colleague highlighted an article by, MacDonald (2002) who mentioned that emails have improved an organization’s information processing and knowledge sharing and an organization benefits from time and cost savings, ease of use and availability of a permanent record. I agreed with him and further added evidences from the same article which stated that employees who communicate via emails tend to produce more diverse and better opinions. In order to establish my position in the group I kept on adding more evidences from an article by Garton and Wellman (1993) which stated that employees become more participative in email communication and the group involved in such communication becomes more dynamic. Finally another colleague, who hardly contributed to the entire discussion broke his ice by making a strong point mentioned in an article in Personnel Today (2013) which stated that the faster growth of smart phones has led the employees to access and send emails anywhere, anytime. Emails can now be read instantly without having to open a computer. A survey conducted by them has showed that more than half of the respondents feel tied in the email communication system, as they cannot deliberately switch off their email application or their phone in the fear of losing out on information or new updates. Whereas, the rest of the respondents believed that being able to communicate and be communicable has give them more security on their job. Everyone in the group including me was thinking him to a soft spoken person, but this strong point shook everyone’s perception about him. As the background study ended, we took a close look at our diary where we were jotting down all the point made by the other group members. Based on this background study, we moved on to the discussion of the main topic, that is whether managers/employees should use email communication all the time. Discussion In the background study I have pointed out that the technological advancements have improved the working efficiency of the employees, but it has also erased the line between professional and personal life, which can prove to be counterproductive in the long run. The employees no longer have a definite working hour as they are compelled to reply to late night emails and solve problems outside their workplace. I further highlighted the results of a survey conducted by Murad (2012) which showed that an average of 17 percent employees feel that they work 24x7 and their work never ends as they communicable by the authority all the time. It also showed that 30 percent of all the employees feel obligated to communicate with the office even when they are on vacation. Moreover, 37 percent of the higher level managers want their employees to keep them posted on major issues, even outside work. Two of my colleagues disagreed with me and commented that email communication outside work is not as irritating as I was trying to prove. This sudden statement took me off guard. They added further added from an article of Kooser (2014) where it was mentioned that with the development of push mail services, our cell phones have become a necessary tool of business and work. He highlighted the fact that technology should be used wisely to foster productivity without making it a hurdle for personal life. Agreeing with this statement I think that since the employees cannot simply shut down not their email devices, so they need to make balance between work and personal life. After I was silenced by this strong statement I became desperate to make my point clear. I realized that I was competing with strong contenders and the fact that I do not know them very well was proving to be an extra hurdle for me. I understood that I needed to change my perspective of discussion and thus I pointed out an article of Burg (2013) where he mentioned that if an employee manages his work by emails or other communication medium, then he can squeeze out more time from his work hours. I further explained this statement by putting forward a hypothetical situation when an employee holds a job which requires him to constantly guide his team and keep track of the progress. Then he can give more time to his family, and simultaneously keep communication with his colleagues. Thus he can reduce his working hours, by extending his work outside his office premises. This will allow him to be physically present at some place where he wants to be. A colleague contrasted sharply that this scenario is valid only in case of certain job profiles. He kept on adding that in case of service related jobs, where an employee needs to spend a define number of hours in his work place; this concept will not work, as he cannot take his work outside the office premise (Drenth, Thierry and De Wolff, 1998). I felt a bit disappointed after I was proven wrong, so I started to think of new ideas that can be used relevantly in the discussion. In the meantime another colleague highlighted an article of Castella (2014) of BBC News Magazine, where it was reported that France has taken steps to ban after work email communications so that the employees will not have to work outside their office hours. All communications have been bounded between 9 am to 6 pm. The contract between the employees’ union and the employer federation states that the employees can switch off their work related phones and ignore all the work related emails outside work hours, and the company cannot force them to check the messages. His report also stated that Volkswagen has adopted a policy which is to stop sending work mails outside working hours. I immediately responded with a statement that this step might help employees to get on with their personal life with ease, but on the other hand this concept is not a viable option for the employees who are higher up in the hierarchy. Managers who need to keep contact with his team, real estate agents and financiers who need to keep in touch with their clients cannot afford to ignore their emails, because it will severely degrade their work performance, which may even get them fired from their job. Another colleague has contrasted that employees who need to check their work emails outside office may be not be stressed out as it might seem. He pointed out a study conducted by Yakowicz (2014) which revealed that more than one third of the full time employees’ checks their work emails outside work and almost all of them reported to have a better life than the ones who do not. This result is same for different age groups, different income groups, and for both the genders. The study also showed that those who spend more than seven hours outside work replying and communicating via email have rated their lifestyle to be better than the ones who never use email communication outside work. On the other hand, half of the employees reported that they are more stressed out than that one third of the sample. After his statement, all the group members took a pause to recollect their thoughts as nobody expected to hear such a well established point from him. Based on the facts that he mentioned I further added that perception of after-work email communication varies among employee groups. This variation of perception is proportionate with variance in job roles and work environment. The employees are stressed to extend their work activities outside their work premises, only because they think that it a burden for them. However, if the organization can restructure their job policies and work environment such that the existing job becomes more engaging and interesting, then I think email communication outside work will be welcomed by most of the employees. . The discussion was progressing in the right direction as all the members justified their statement and none of them deviated from the topic. I realized that very few colleagues were pointing out about the health issues of extending the working hours. So, I decided to highlight an article by Oaklander (2014) where it was outlined that although email has opened up the organizational communication, it has put a significant impact on our health. I continued by pointing Larissa Barber, a well known psychologist, who has coined the term “telepressure” to define the immense data processing that an employee goes through before and after his work schedule (Oaklander, 2014). Her studies have shown that the employees who are even on a sick leave feel obligated to check emails and respond to them instantly. Ignoring incoming mails eventually lead to mental stress. It has been reported that “Telepressure” is responsible for insomnia and increased burn outs (Oaklander, 2014). At this point I was supported by one of my colleagues, who related this situation to different types of personalities. He mentioned that people who are overachiever are more resistant to telepressure and have the ability to adapt to the extension of professional boundaries. This can be related to the level of engagement one has with the work. Since, the stress and degrading health issues are psychological in nature, so it is less likely to affect the employees who are interested in their job and does not consider their job to a burden. After getting being agreed upon, I felt a sense of confidence, which allowed me add that email communication, has virtually extended the working hours of an employee, which may seem to be exhausting to an average employee. However, to a high achievement oriented person, this life style may seem to be tempting, where he can use technology to increase his efficiency. On the other hand, people who belong to the Type B personality, often like to stay within their comfort zone and are easily stressed out when exposed to environmental changes. These types of people are most likely to be less engaged from work or in some cases they can even be disengaged, as a result they get easily stressed out by out of working hour email communication. As soon as I finished another college also supported my statement mentioning that they also think, replying to work emails all the time can be exhausting because most employees are not habituated with too much data processing, which as a result causes mental fatigue and burn out. I continued towards a final verdict that the personality type has justified the variance in opinions of after work emails, but it still does not provide a solution to the people who are facing the trouble to cope up with their virtually extended working hours. I also mentioned that Murad (2012) has listed some of the effective measure to maintain a proper work life balance. Firstly, the employee should learn to anticipate the work needs. This pre-emptive approach will allow the employee to learn more about his boss and he will get the necessary time window to send the required information ahead of time. As a result, he will not have to wait for his boss to send remainder mails. Secondly, the employee should take time to reply, this allows them to gather more information and more time to process the gathered information. Taking time for information processing reduces the mental pressure. Thirdly, even if the out of office work activities should seem endless, the employee must allocate a predefined amount of time and effort outside his work premises. This will help him to define distinct boundaries between work and personal life and in time he will learn to keep them separate. Fourthly, the employee should set a definite expectation level for his supervisor or boss. This can be accomplished by maintaining a good relationship and communication with the reporting authority. A fixed level of expectation can be set by standardizing the out of office work activities. The supervisor is less likely to expect more from an employee who has fixed his work activities. The managers, who are also exhausted by constantly replying to the subordinates’ problems, should give clear instructions about the time frame for sending emails. The fifth point suggests that an employee should arrange his personal and professional activities in one single calendar. This will help him to schedule both kinds of activities together and at the same time he will be able to keep them separate (Munaf et al, 2009). Conclusion This group assignment has allowed me to study the effects of organizational email communication. Although the discussion did not go as smoothly as at often times arguments heated up in to chaotic situations, but I have successfully pointed out that there is no thumb rule which will work out for all the employees who feel stressed out by out of work email communication. At the end of the discussion all the group members reached to the same conclusion which stated that now-a-days, every professional individual holds a smart phone, where he receives and responds to emails. In order to get a good night’s sleep, all professional individual should turn off the notifications on their phones wherever possible. The managers on the other hand should only communicate with his subordinates at the time of urgency. As a result, the employees will expect to get less frequent mails, which will allow them to focus on their personal life. In some circumstances, it is simply not possible to ignore emails, and the employee or the manager must remain engaged in communication almost 24x7. In such cases, the employee should find ways to make his job more interesting and engaging. This can be achieved by changing the workflow and by looking at the targets as achievement opportunities rather than just burden which needs removal. So, by changing the way how we look at our jobs can make it easier to deal with. Reference Burg, N., 2013. How Technology Has Changed Workplace Communication. [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 November 2014] Castella, T., 2014. Could work emails be banned after 6pm? [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 November 2014] Drenth, P.J.D., Thierry, H. and De Wolff, C.J., 1998. Handbook of Work and Organizational Psychology. 2/e. East Sussex: Psychology Press Ltd. Hair, M., Ramsey, J. and Renaud, K.V., 2007. The influence of self-esteem and locus of control on perceived e-mail-related stress. Computers in Human Behaviour, 23(6), pp.2791-803. Janjhua, Y., 2012. Behavior of Personality Type Toward Stress and Job Performance: A Study of Healthcare Professionals. [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 November 2014] Kooser, A.C., 2014. How Does Technology Improve a Business? [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 November 2014] MacDonald, L., 2002. Managing E-mail and Internet Use. Tolly. Croydon. Munaf, S., Nisa, U., Shaheen, A., Hussain, S., Kamrani, F. and Vohra, S., 2009. Personality type, gender and age difference. Bahria Journal of Professional Psychology, 5, pp.38-53. Murad, A., 2012. Put the BlackBerry Down: Why You Shouldnt Work 24/7. [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 November 2014] Oaklander, M., 2014. Answering Emails After Work Is Bad For Your Health. [online] Available at:< http://time.com/3560203/stress-work-email/ > [Accessed 29 November 2014] Personnel Today, 2013. Improving the work-life balance through stress reduction. [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 November 2014] Spaho, K., 2011. 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