Why checking work emails at home is bad for your health

IF you checked your work emails before you got to the office today but still feel weary despite a good night’s sleep, here’s some bad news...

That curse of office staff – the work-life balance – has now officially been linked by psychologists to exhaustion, a lack of wellbeing and lower participation in hobbies and sports.

People who take their work home do not give themselves enough time to recover, according to researchers.

A study of more than 900 employees found those without a boundary between office and home life failed to relax and do the things they enjoyed during their time off.

This led them to feel physically and emotionally exhausted, they told researchers.

Lead author Dr Ariane Wepfer, from the University of Zurich, said: ‘Employees who integrated work into their non-work life reported being more exhausted because they recovered less.

‘This lack of recovery activities furthermore explains why people who integrate their work into the rest of their lives have a lower sense of well-being.’

The results of the study are based on people’s answers to questions on how often they leave work late and take work home. Their answers on this scale of ‘work-life boundary’ were then compared with their life outside of work.

People rated their agreement with the statement ‘I make sure I can relax during my time off’, which covered ‘me-time’, hobbies and sports. They also rated how strongly they made sure to ‘do things that I enjoy’ and took care to balance work and private time.

British figures show men do more than two hours of unpaid work on average a day, with women managing more than three hours on average.

Many employers now expect staff to answer work-related emails after hours or take their laptops with them on holiday.