As of: March 29, 2024, 12:00 p.m
By: Carina Blumenroth
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Some people receive a lot of emails at work. That can be exhausting. How to deal with a full mailbox.
Organizational notifications, information for the next meeting or spam – new emails arrive regularly in your email inbox. This can be stressful and lead to stress, consciously or unconsciously. How you as an employee can deal with it.
Stress from emails? Things become difficult when self-determination is lacking
Constant emails and messages can distract you from your actual tasks. This can lead to stress. © Antonio Guillem/Imago
Full mailboxes suggest that you still have a lot to do. New tasks are constantly coming in and messages are landing in your inbox. This can give you the feeling that you just have to react, informs industrial psychologist Romana Dreyer in an interview with
Spiegel.de
. “This can cause stress and ultimately cause a person to be less productive. It’s not just about the actual mail volume,” says Dreyer. But it's not just emails that can influence productivity, some strategies also have an impact on the working day. Likewise, long, disorganized meetings can be bad for your ability to work. If everything comes together and employees cannot find a way to relieve themselves, this can have an impact on their health. A study carried out on behalf of the health insurance company Pronova BKK states that the majority of respondents consider themselves to be at risk of burnout.
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Question your reaction to new emails
Do you feel negatively overwhelmed when you receive new emails? Then this could be a sign that you are not coping well with the workload overall. Dreyer tells
Spiegel
: “The need to constantly check your mailbox can also be a sign.” It is important that you question yourself and your way of working and find a way to deal with it better if the current way of working is too is stressful for you. You can control this, for example, with fixed email slots. Take time for your email in the morning, lunch and afternoon. The rest of the time your email inbox is not open. This way you keep the focus on your actual work.
Interruptions at work - it takes a while to get back on topic
In an earlier report, the
SWR
reported on experiments in which it was found that it takes around ten minutes until you have processed the reason for the interruption and regained your concentration. For example, when messages or emails pop up. If this happens constantly, you may feel like you can no longer concentrate on your work. Stress arises, cortisol levels rise and this can lead to sleep disorders, digestive problems or an increased heart rate.
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Digital stress in the workplace
Digital stress refers to the negative effects of digital technologies and media, the
Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
informs in a brochure. The study “Working Healthily Digitally” (2019) found that one in eight of the 5,000 participants felt heavily to very heavily burdened by digital work. This can affect the feeling of stress.