Here are 5 types of ‘technostress’ & how to support overwhelmed employees

The day to day life of a modern employee nowadays is truly uncharted territory. Younger generations of professionals never had to contend with the ever expanding list of communication channels and new forms of technology that are constantly being added to workers’ daily routines.

All of those notifications, emails, pings, and video calls are intended to streamline productivity and help facilitate genuine collaboration among colleagues. While all of that may be true, it’s still a lot for the average person to deal with on top of everything else going on during a typical workday. Even worse, most of these new communication channels make it far too easy for employees to be contacted (or perhaps bothered) while at home long after the traditional workday is over. 

Recent research from the University of Colorado at Boulder documents how all of these seemingly small technological additions to our days tend to add up very quickly, ultimately resulting in tons of extra “technostress” for countless employees. Let’s take a look at five ways digital stress can contribute to worker burnout and poor well-being, as well as a few ways employers and managers can help their employees better manage digital stressors.

Digital stressors compound & escalate burnout risk

While there’s already been plenty of scientific research performed pointing to a direct relationship between new work technologies and stressed out employees, woefully few of such projects actually offer up any advice on how to address this common issue.

“We work with technologies that enable people to contact us in different times and spaces. It may increase our anxiety and make us feel invaded, among other things,” says Jason Thatcher, professor of organizational leadership and information analytics at the Leeds School of Business, in a university release. 

“And the reason we’re stressed out is that we’re not thinking about it the right way. We have to think about clusters of stressors operating together that make you feel burned out.”

To that end, Prof. Thatcher co-authored this study, which analyzed how digital stressors tend to mix together and escalate the risk of burnout. The research posits there is no single approach to addressing various “techno-stressors”. Instead, a comprehensive strategy put in place by employers, and enacted by managers, is key.

5 types of technostress 

The research team, which also includes Katharina Pflügner, Christian Maier, Jens Mattke, and Tim Weitzel (all from the University of Bamberg in Germany), put together a list of five types of digital stress that may promote burnout and prove detrimental to an individual’s productivity, workflow, and overall mental health:

• Techno-overload: Employees who are already dealing with tons of work and tight deadlines often feel heightened stress in the event of constant emails, notifications, and alerts.

• Techno-invasion: It’s very common for employees to feel pressure to remain constantly connected via their phones, computers, and other devices. This, of course, prevents detachment from work and a healthy work-life balance.

• Techno-complexity: Plenty of workers find it incredibly difficult to master new software and information systems, which usually leads to excess stress and feelings of inadequacy. 

• Techno-insecurity: This stress stems from fear that one’s job will be made redundant or deemed expendable due to colleagues with better tech skills.

• Techno-uncertainty: The constant and rapid rate of technological advancement stresses many workers out, as they feel incredible pressure to continually adapt to new systems and tools.

Multiple stressors require multiple solutions

It’s imperative to understand that the digital stressors mentioned above are by no means mutually exclusive. According to researchers that means a multifaceted approach is necessary.

“To address the problem, you can’t just address the overload and invasion,” Prof. Thatcher explains. “You have to be more strategic.” 

“Let’s say I’m a manager, and I implement a policy that says no email on weekends because everybody’s stressed out,” he continues. “But everyone stays stressed out. That’s because I may have gotten rid of techno-invasion—that feeling that work is intruding on my life—but on Monday, when I open my email, I still feel really overloaded because there are 400 emails.” 

It’s crucial for managers to assess all of the digital stressors affecting their employees, and then settle on a combined strategy that will target them all.

“You can’t just address invasion. You can’t just address overload. You have to address them together,” he notes.

Empowering employees is essential 

So, what can corporate leaders and office managers do to combat company wide technostress? 

“Maybe they would talk to the person rather than saying, ‘Don’t look at your email on the weekend’ to the team. The manager might say, “Let’s work on time management so that you look at email for one hour on Saturday, so that on Monday you don’t feel overwhelmed.'”

Alternatively, researchers say empowering all workers and employees with more autonomy is another very effective means of preventing technostress.

“As a manager, it may feel really dangerous to say, ‘You can structure when and where and how you do work.’ But what you’ll find is that most people don’t actually change what they’re doing very much, but they’re going to feel better because they feel in control of their jobs,” Prof. Thatcher comments.

All modern managers also need to understand that with the introduction of new technologies usually comes a few unexpected problems. So, while a shiny new communication channel may make work easier for most employees, “it can increase feelings of overload because they have to deal with so much more,” Prof. Thatcher adds.

“So you have to look at these technologies as bundles. A tool may be designed to help the company address one problem, but think about the other unintended problems you might be creating. And give employees the tools and the freedom to sort out how to actually manage them,” he says.

Additional ways to combat digital stress

Study authors point to a number of additional strategies managers can consider when it comes to soothing digital anxiety:

• Assessments: Habitual assessments like surveys, conversations with employees, and analyzing digital communication patterns can help managers better identify and understand specific digital stressors among employees. 

• Policies: Clear policies and boundaries can help cut down on digital stress tremendously. For instance, a rule forbidding after-hours communication.

• Training: Training programs often help workers improve digital literacy skills and more efficiently manage the boundaries separating work and personal life.

• Leadership modeling: If a leader is unsure of what action to take, they may want to look to other managers and company leaders for guidance on how to support healthy digital communication practices.

• Attentiveness: A great manager can pick up on the subtle early signs of burnout, and regularly performs check-ins, assessments, and surveys in order to identify and address stressors before they become a major problem.

• Flexibility: Researchers explain middle management may need to be more flexible when it comes to ensuring their teams can withstand digital stress. “You’ll see companies will start a policy that says everyone’s got to have their phones on,” Prof.Thatcher adds. “But maybe you just have a policy that’s more judicious in terms of thinking about the design of various jobs, and you give the unit manager some discretion.”

All in all, researchers conclude there is no one-size-fits-all approach to extinguishing digital anxiety in the workplace. Leaders, managers, and bosses must keep a close eye on their teams and determine the best course of action on a case by case basis. 

“It’s the different sets of stressors that lead to burnout and job dissatisfaction, and if you’re only focusing on one, your employees are doomed,” Prof. Thatcher concludes. “But if you focus on the whole person, the whole job and the sets of stressors that the technologies introduce—and you work with your employees to find ways to manage them—you’re going to have a happier workplace with people that perform, on average, better.”