The incessant inbox: Evaluating the relevance of after‐hours e‐mail characteristics for work‐related rumination and well‐being

Abstract

While many employees read and respond to work-related e-mails in the evenings after work, the mechanisms through which after-hours e-mailing influences wellbeing remain poorly understood. In particular, there has been limited consideration of whether different characteristics of after-hours e-mails (frequency, duration, perceived tone) may trigger work-related rumination that influences employee wellbeing at bedtime (i.e., the end of the post-work period). To address this gap in the literature, data were collected from 59 employees during a 5-day daily survey period. We expected after-hours e-mail frequency, duration, and perceived tone to indirectly relate to employee vigour and fatigue at bedtime (two common well-being criteria) via affective rumination and problem-solving pondering (two major forms of work-related rumination). Our results indicated that a more negatively perceived after-hours e-mail tone influenced both vigour and fatigue via affective rumination.Further, our findings suggested diverging implications of after-hours e-mailing frequency and duration for problem-solving pondering, with longer duration and more frequent after-hours e-mailing co-varying with higher and lower levels of this form of rumination, respectively. These findings demonstrate the importance of considering various characteristics of after-hours e-mailing and corresponding implications of work-related rumination when studying employee well-being.

Keeping Up With Work Email After Hours and Employee Wellbeing: Examining Relationships During and Prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Keeping up with WRE during nonwork hours can act as a stressor by 1) resulting in an increase in supplemental work, since WRE is being checked outside of work hours, 2) requiring individuals to repeatedly transition between work and family roles/tasks, and 3) serving as a vehicle through which additional job stressors can spill over into the family/home domain. In addition, the act of checking or sending WRE outside of work hours not only takes time away from family obligations, but can also affect one's psychological presence (i.e., attention-giving) during family time, especially when the content of the email leads to prolonged rumination about work (Minnen et al, 2020). Therefore, when employees keep up with their WRE during nonwork hours, they may be less likely to psychologically detach from their work, in turn eliciting conflict between work and home domains.…”

“…In addition, although the act of checking WRE during nonwork hours may take up just a few minutes of nonwork time, its effects may persist long after an individual has finished reading or sending the email. For example, checking WRE may lead to work-related rumination, which can result in prolonged thoughts about work during nonwork time (Minnen et al, 2020). Furthermore, WRE can act as a bridge through which work demands and stressors can enter nonwork domains, as the content of an email may remind an individual of stressors experienced during the workday or upcoming work demands.…”

Being Tired or Having Much Left Undone: The Relationship Between Fatigue and Unfinished Tasks With Affective Rumination and Vitality in Beginning Teachers

“…By using three measurement points per day, the present study allowed for testing the cyclical or reciprocal processes mentioned and evaluating whether states immediately after work are associated with the state immediately before work the next morning. Third, our study adds to the scant research (e.g., Kinnunen et al, 2019;Minnen et al, 2021) focusing on the effect of affective rumination on more positive connoted forms of outcome as indicators of good wellbeing (Minnen et al, 2021). Specifically, we considered vitality as the opposite and positive connoted equivalent of the state of feeling fatigued.…”

Work e-mail after hours and off-job duration and their association with psychological detachment, actigraphic sleep, and saliva cortisol: A 1-month observational study for information technology employees

“…Earlier studies pointed out that work-related contact outside of working hours may be connected to health problems. [4][5][6] Meanwhile, recovery from work is also needed to ensure the daily off-job rest period. The European Union's (EU) work-time directive stipulates recovery through "11 consecutive hour daily rest periods between working days" 7 -the so-called "work-interval system".…”

“…Nevertheless, objective data are still lacking because the assessments in previous research were often made with self-reported measurements. [4][5][6]13,14 Moreover, the interaction between work e-mail frequency and off-job duration is also unclear. In other words, some employees work in their off-job time by means of ICT with sufficient off-job time, and others work outside their official hours without sufficient off-job time.…”