14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study conducted by researcher Dr. Emma Russell, an occupational psychologist from the United Kingdom, reveals exactly how work emails can have a negative effect on your mental health, as well as on that of your colleagues or friends.
One of the worst things you can do is reply to emails as soon as you receive them, even if you are off the clock. Many respondents in the study reported doing so, but Russell says that this habit can have significant repercussions, including the inability to switch off “work mode.”
The expert identified a series of seven negative behaviors involving modern-day email usage patterns: constantly sending emails back and forth (ping-ponging), emailing out of hours, emailing while you have company, ignoring emails, requesting receipts, responding right away to an alert, and automatic replies.
All of these behaviors can have positive effects if used in moderation, but they can become a real problem for your mental health if you abuse them. “Some workers became so obsessed by email that they even reported experiencing so-called ‘phantom alerts’ where they think their phone has vibrated or bleeped with an incoming email when in fact it has not,” Russell explains, quoted by PsychCentral.