Connected to the Workplace – Telepressure

“So the dad constantly texting coworkers from the sideline of a youth soccer game, the multitasking mom firing off work e-mails over Saturday morning breakfast and the steadfast employee sleeping with his company-issued smartphone by his pillow – these behaviours all point to the psychological state of workplace telepressure,” says Northern Illinois University, whose psych professors Larissa Barber and Alecia Santuzzi did the study.

Or, as Ms. Barber told Fortune, which is where I first read about this, some people can’t unplug because they believe it can hurt their careers.

Their study, which goes beyond their earlier work and was published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, documents what many of already know, that we can’t go beyond a few minutes without checking to see if that e-mail on our BlackBerry is something we’d better respond to quickly.

But there’s a cost to this beyond losing time with the kids, pausing the movie or putting down the book.

“Workers who indicate they feel high levels of telepressure are more likely to report burnout, a feeling of being unfocused, health-related absenteeism and diminished sleep quality,” Ms. Barber, the lead author of the report, says on the university’s website.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Researchers cite new health peril: ‘Workplace telepressure’ – The Globe and Mail.