Americans are stressed, but they won’t stop checking work email

Do you check your work email from home? How about on vacation? While research shows that taking time off can alleviate stress, most Americans keep up with work email when they’re away.

On average, Americans now take about 16 days of vacation a year, so it’s no surprise that most say they’re stressed at work. Average vacation days are down from about three weeks in 2000, according to NPR and Matthew Grawitch, a psychologist at Saint Lewis University who studies stress in the workplace.

In addition to fewer vacation days, most Americans use email to stay connected to work when they’re at home or on vacation. A 2013 survey of U.S. employees found that 81 percent keep up with work email on weekends, while 59 percent check work email on vacation.

Millennials and their smartphones are partially to blame, but American workers are guilty across the board. Another survey found that 55 percent of Americans think checking email at home is a normal part of 21st-century employment. While there is a split in attitudes around age 30, it isn’t that significant. Two-thirds of the younger crowd say checking work email at home is the new normal, while only 41 percent of older respondents agree.

The result of these trends is that Americans are “taking their stress along with them wherever they go,” explains Robert Blendon, a professor and health policy analyst at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Unfortunately, research shows that one key to reducing stress is periodically disengaging from one’s everyday routine - the opposite of constantly checking work email. In addition to affecting overall happiness and wellbeing, stress is associated with negative health impacts like increased heart disease, liver disease, and gastrointestinal problems.

Stress also makes workers less productive, and some employers think more vacation days can actually reduce their overall costs. Diane Domeyer, the executive director of a staffing firm called The Creative Group, says 39 percent of marketing executives believe their employees would be more productive if they took more time off. Many also realize that burnout can increase costs by lowering productivity and retention.

Of course, actually decreasing employee work time isn’t that simple - it requires restructuring work, utilizing technology more effectively, and coordinating vacation times so work is still being accomplished by people not on vacation. But as an employee, simply disconnecting from email when you’re home or away is an easy first step.

If you’re one of those people who goes on vacation and still keeps up with work on your smartphone, Domeyer suggests using a “delayed delivery” function. By diverting emails until the day you return, it can be easier to “turn off” and de-stress when you’re out of the office.