Banning access to work emails outside office hours could cause more harm than good to employee well-being, according to a study.
Researchers at the University of Sussex found that while such a ban could help some employees “roll down the drain,” it could also stop people from achieving work goals, causing them stress.
Many companies are increasingly limiting the use of email to combat burnout, and human resources body CIPD has also said it agrees with the University.
Furthermore, according to the research, strict policies regarding email use could be harmful for employees with high levels of stress.
Some employees may even lose jobs due to stress in cases of increased workload. Many even show of depression .
Of course, banning email use outside of work hours would certainly not be acceptable to employees who have performance goals or who want to complete all their pending tasks outside of work hours. Therefore, the best solution is for each employee to manage the new data based on their personality and goal priorities.
Some of the companies that have taken advantage of this system are Volkswagen, which has configured servers so that emails are only sent from half an hour before work starts until half an hour after it ends. Of course, it has disabled sending emails during the weekend.
And last year, Lidl bosses in Belgium banned all internal email traffic between 6pm and 7am to help staff clear their minds and enjoy their time.
In France, a law was passed in 2017 requiring companies with more than 50 employees to set hours when staff should not send or respond to emails, although some doubt that everyone will follow the rules.
Finally, in New York, there were proposals to become the first city in the US to grant its employees the right to "disconnect" after work.
