For many people, constant pings, buzzes and flashes on their phones, computers and other devices are just a normal part of working life—which, thanks to technology, extends to all hours.
Jason Thatcher
An abundance of research analyzes the effects of overload and stress from technology in the workplace, yet there have been no effective solutions, said Jason Thatcher, professor of organizational leadership and information analytics at the Leeds School of Business.
“We work with technologies that enable people to contact us in different times and spaces. It may increase our anxiety and make us feel invaded, among other things,” Thatcher said. “And the reason we’re stressed out is that we’re not thinking about it the right way. We have to think about clusters of stressors operating together that make you feel burned out.”
Thatcher co-authored a recent , published in June 2024 in MIS Quarterly, that examines how digital stressors compound and escalate. It asserts there is no one approach to counteracting different “technostressors”; rather it requires a comprehensive strategy on the part of employers and, specifically, direct managers.
According to the study’s co-authors, who also include Katharina Pflügner, Christian Maier, Jens Mattke and Tim Weitzel, all of the University of Bamberg in Germany, here are five ways digital stress can lead to burnout and disrupt an employee’s workflow, mental health and productivity:
- Techno-overload. Employees already dealing with excessive workloads and tight deadlines feel their stress heightened by constant emails, notifications and alerts.
- Techno-invasion. Employees feel pressure to remain constantly connected via their phones, computers and other devices, which prevents them from detaching from work.
- Techno-complexity. Difficulty mastering software and information systems at work makes employees feel inadequate and stressed.
- Techno-insecurity. This stress results from an employee’s fear that their job will be made redundant or they will be replaced by a colleague with better tech skills.
- Techno-uncertainty. Constant change due to technological advancement means employees feel stress and pressure to continually adapt to new systems and tools.
These digital stressors don’t occur in isolation, according to the researchers, which necessitates a multifaceted approach. “To address the problem, you can’t just address the overload and invasion,” Thatcher said. “You have to be more strategic.”
“Let’s say I’m a manager, and I implement a policy that says no email on weekends because everybody's stressed out,” Thatcher said. “But everyone stays stressed out. That’s because I may have gotten rid of techno-invasion—that feeling that work is intruding on my life—but on Monday, when I open my email, I still feel really overloaded because there are 400 emails.”
It’s crucial for managers to assess the various digital stressors affecting their employees and then target them as a combination, according to the researchers. That means to address the above problem, Thatcher said, “you can't just address invasion. You can't just address overload. You have to address them together,” he said.
Empowering employees
So how would the manager fix the above problem?
“Maybe they would talk to the person rather than saying, ‘Don't look at your email on the weekend’ to the team. The manager might say, ‘Let's work on time management so that you look at email for one hour on Saturday, so that on Monday you don't feel overwhelmed.’”
Another tool for managers is empowering employees, according to the study. “As a manager, it may feel really dangerous to say, ‘You can structure when and where and how you do work.’ But what you'll find is that most people don't actually change what they're doing very much, but they're going to feel better because they feel in control of their jobs,” Thatcher said.
Managers should also recognize that there may be unintended problems with the introduction of new technologies, he added.
A new communication platform may make some things easier for employees, for example, “but it can increase feelings of overload because they have to deal with so much more,” Thatcher said.
“So you have to look at these technologies as bundles. A tool may be designed to help the company address one problem, but think about the other unintended problems you might be creating. And give employees the tools and the freedom to sort out how to actually manage them,” he said.
Other ways managers can address digital stressors include:
- Assessments. Conducting regular assessments such as surveys, conversations with employees and analysis of digital communication patterns can help managers identify and understand the specific digital stressors impacting employees.
- Policies. Limit the impacts of digital stressors by setting policies or clear boundaries for after-hours communication, for example.
- Training. Training can help employees improve their digital literacy skills and manage boundaries between work and personal life.
- Leadership modeling. Call on other managers and company leaders to model and support healthy digital communication practices.
- Attentiveness. Digital stress can lead even high-performing employees to burnout, according to the researchers. Managers should recognize the early signs of burnout and consider regular check-ins, assessments, surveys and open communication to identify and address the stressors before they escalate.
- Flexibility. Middle managers may need more flexibility to help employees address digital stressors. “You'll see companies will start a policy that says everyone's got to have their phones on,” Thatcher said. “But maybe you just have a policy that's more judicious in terms of thinking about the design of various jobs, and you give the unit manager some discretion.”
He emphasized there is no one-size-fits-all solution to combating digital stressors.
“It's the different sets of stressors that lead to burnout and job dissatisfaction, and if you're only focusing on one, your employees are doomed,” Thatcher said. “But if you focus on the whole person, the whole job and the sets of stressors that the technologies introduce—and you work with your employees to find ways to manage them—you're going to have a happier workplace with people that perform, on average, better.”
