The fine line between enhanced productivity and debilitating stress is becoming increasingly blurred. Digital stress can lead to burnout and diminished work performance in nuanced ways. Katharina Pflügner, Christian Maier, Jason Bennett Thatcher, Jens Mattke and Tim Weitzel have studied the intricate dynamics at play. They discuss their critical findings and implications for businesses and their workforce.
First and foremost, what constitutes digital stress? We know from existing literature that there are several digital stressors, which are factors contributing to stress from using digital technologies. These stressors can significantly disrupt an employee’s workflow, mental health, and overall work performance.
We here identify the five most prominent factors. First, employees face an overwhelming number of tasks and information delivered rapidly by digital technologies. The constant inflow of emails, notifications, and alerts exacerbates this pressure. Second, technology blurs work-life boundaries. The need to remain constantly connected through smartphones, laptops, and other devices can turn one’s home into an extension of the workplace. This perpetual connectivity diminishes the capacity to detach from work. Third, the complexity of using digital technologies can overwhelm employees. Many find it challenging to master software and systems, which require substantial time and effort to be mastered, resulting in feelings of inadequacy and digital stress. Fourth, people can feel anxiety that their jobs may be rendered redundant due to advanced digital technologies or that a digitally savvy colleague might replace them. Fifth, rapid technological advancements lead to a constant state of change. Employees must perpetually adapt to new systems and tools and uncertainty persists.
Digital stressor interplay
Digital stressors do not function in isolation: they work together in complex ways, which can escalate into severe outcomes such as burnout and reduced work performance.
The interaction between these digital stressors amplifies negative effects. An employee who is frequently interrupted by instant messages and is also constantly connected to work, even after working hours, may experience intensified digital stress levels compared to dealing with each stressor individually. Also, a problem may only become evident when other digital stressors are present. Someone who is overloaded with messages and notifications while remaining constantly available may not feel stressed out until the situation is combined with technology that is too complex to handle. Sometimes when a source of digital stress is mitigated, employees may still experience the same level of digital stress due to other persistent sources, such as the constant state of digital change and uncertainty.
Practical implications for businesses
Given our findings, we suggest that businesses take a broad-spectrum approach to mitigating digital stress. Too often, managers focus on addressing a single digital stressor. For instance, they may implement a policy to limit after-hours emails. This is only an initial step. It isolates one cause of stress but is unlikely to bring significant relief from others. Managers must conduct a thorough assessment of the various digital stressors affecting their employees and target a combination of these through relevant interventions.
Assessment and interventions
The following measures and interventions have been found to be effective:
- Comprehensive assessments: Conducting regular assessments to identify and understand the specific digital stressors impacting employees. This can involve surveys, employee dialogues, and analysing digital communication patterns.
- Communication habits and policies: Implementing digital communication that limit the negative impacts of digital stressors. For instance, setting clear boundaries for after-hours communication and introducing a culture where information is “pulled” when required for the respective work instead of “pushed” at any time. Employees should feel safe to voice concerns without fear of repercussions. Transparent communication about the digital stress level with the manager by regular check-ins and feedback loops can help surface issues before they escalate into bigger problems.
- Technological tools: Leveraging information systems to reduce the burden of digital stressors. Automated tools such as chatbots that answer technology-related questions or tools to prioritise and manage communications efficiently can help employees focus better on their tasks and enable fast solutions to technology-related issues.
- Training programs: Offering training programs that offer employees digital literacy and techniques to manage their work-life boundaries.
- Leadership involvement: Engaging leadership to model and support practices that reduce digital stress. When leadership teams demonstrate a commitment to healthy digital communication practices, they set a precedent for the rest of the organisation.
Small changes and digital stress thresholds
Based on our findings, we suggest managers become aware of employees’ digital stress thresholds when assigning work. Employees might endure a certain level of stress without apparent damage. However, once this threshold is breached by an additional digital stressor, it could lead to significant negative consequences, potentially impairing their work performance.
Even small changes in digital stressors can have outsized effects on work performance and employee well-being. People can handle up to multiple digital stressors without a significant drop in work performance. If the landscape shifts slightly—say an urgent project requires employees to remain reachable outside regular hours, increasing the intensity of techno-invasion— work performance can plummet.
When it comes to burnout, employees experience burnout even with fewer digital stressors, implying that burnout arises first before it manifests also in reduced work performance.
Recognising hidden signs of burnout
Our research suggests that managers must not equate high job performance with the absence of digital stress. Digital stressors can lead to burnout, even in high-performing employees. This often manifests subtly before it overtakes work performance, presenting a significant managerial challenge.
Managers should be acutely aware that top-performing employees can be just as susceptible. Rather than assuming that high performance implies a lack of digital stress, it’s vital to look for early signs of burnout and take proactive measures. Regular assessments in the form of check-ins, surveys and open communication can help managers identify and address digital stressors before the situation escalates into burnout.
Conclusion
Taking a configurational approach to digital stress in the workplace helps managers understand that neither a one-size-fits-all approach nor a single intervention successfully addresses the problems of digital stress-induced burnout, lower work performance and more. It demands a comprehensive, multi-faceted strategy that considers the unique digital stressors interacting and confronting employees. By thoroughly assessing digital stressors, understanding their significant interplay and impact of small changes, and recognizing that high performance does not negate the presence of digital stress, organisations can create a healthier, more sustainable work environment that supports both employee well-being and productivity.
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- This blog post is based on Deconstructing Technostress: A Configurational Approach to Explaining Job Burnout and Job Performance, MIS Quarterly.
- The post represents the views of the author(s), not the position of LSE Business Review or the London School of Economics and Political Science.
- Featured image provided by Shutterstock
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