Hybrid work a cause of techno-stress: ‘You have to be there all the time’

“It’s that pressure to respond, like when I get an email and feel I have to reply quickly, or someone will think, ‘What are you doing at home?’”

“The truth is that I leave my phone in the car at night, so I’m not tempted to look at it.”

These are just two of the responses featured in a recent study exploring the challenges of hybrid work — the combination of in-person and remote work that has become more prevalent since the pandemic.

The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) has only just accepted “teleworking” as a new word, but society has been ahead of the curve for years, already grappling with the challenges of blending office and remote work. This hybrid format — particularly common in computer-based jobs — has attracted a lot of attention from academia. A recent qualitative study, based on 14 in-depth interviews conducted in 2022 with individuals ranging in age from 27 to 60 and from various work backgrounds, delves into the complexities of this new work dynamic.

“The article provides concrete insights into how the work experience is lived in a digital environment with high demands and intense use of technology,” says Elizabeth Marsh, co-author and professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nottingham. “It analyzes how employees perceive being hyperconnected and feeling overwhelmed by their digital work, and the consequences for their mental and physical health.”

Five common themes emerged from the responses, highlighting the “dark side” of hybrid work: hyperconnectivity, digital fatigue, system feature overload, informational fear of missing out, and techno-stress. Drawing from previous research, the article mentions that hybrid workers, driven in part by “productivity paranoia” from distrustful bosses, “can spend up to 67 extra minutes a day to avoid appearing to be faltering.”

Several of the phrases cited in the study reflect common complaints about hybrid work: “You feel like you have to be there all the time, as if you had to be that little green light that’s always on,” “I’m constantly on Slack on my phone, and sometimes it affects other things I should be doing,” and “I could be working, but I get distracted and think, ‘I’m going to check my emails,’ and before I know it, I’ve spent half an hour just looking at emails without doing anything in particular.”

Hybrid working and digital environments also have advantages: “They can be good for both wellbeing and productivity,” says Marsh. “Avoiding the negative effects, or what we call the ‘dark side,’ depends on how organizations approach digital tools, involve workers in the process, and give them the skills and mindset necessary to have a healthy digital work life.”

Numerous apps and platforms support this digital environment: “I find Microsoft Teams really overwhelming because it’s so many different things,” says one interviewee. But researchers haven’t found any one app to be particularly at fault. “In our study, participants particularly struggled with the overload of emails, chat messages, and video conferences,” says Marsh. For some, the sheer number of communication channels in the digital space became stressful, as they tried to keep up with everyone.

While age did not appear to be a significant factor, researchers noted that older workers faced more obstacles in dealing with digital challenges. “All the workers interviewed, regardless of age, felt the effects of technological intensity. Older workers seemed to be at greater risk of stress and anxiety, specifically due to difficulties in performing daily tasks online, using new or updated tools, or internet crashes,” the researcher explains.

The feeling of overload is more a feeling than a point of no return. Solutions, Marsh suggests, lie in better focusing workers’ efforts: “Participants talked about how the digital work experience has intensified, especially since the pandemic. We need to think about the mental and emotional effort increasingly demanded of employees, and how we can reduce it to protect well-being and improve productivity.”

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