|
Being cut off from work email significantly reduces stress and allows employees to focus far better, according to a new studyby UC Irvine and U.S. Army researchers. Heart rate monitors were attached to computer users in a suburbanoffice setting, while software sensors detected how often theyswitched windows. People who read email changed screens twice asoften and were in a steady "high alert" state, with more constantheart rates. Those removed from email for five days experiencedmore natural, variable heart rates. "We found that when you remove email from workers' lives, theymultitask less and experience less stress," said UCI informaticsprofessor Gloria Mark. She co-authored the study, "A Pace NotDictated by Electrons," with UCI assistant project scientistStephen Voida and Army senior research scientist Armand Cardello.The UCI team will present the work Monday, May 7, at theAssociation for Computing Machinery's Computer-Human InteractionConference in Austin, Texas. The study was funded by the Army and the National ScienceFoundation. Participants were computer-dependent civilian employeesat the Army's Natick Soldier Systems Center outside Boston. Thosewith no email reported feeling better able to do their jobs andstay on task, with fewer stressful and time-wasting interruptions. Measurements bore that out, Mark said. People with email switchedwindows an average of 37 times per hour. Those without changedscreens half as often - about 18 times in an hour. She said the findings could be useful for boosting productivity andsuggested that controlling email login times, batching messages orother strategies might be helpful. "Email vacations on the job maybe a good idea," she noted. "We need to experiment with that." Mark said it was hard to recruit volunteers for the study, but"participants loved being without email, especially if theirmanager said it was OK. In general, they were much happier tointeract in person." Getting up and walking to someone's desk offered physical relieftoo, she said. Other research has shown that people with steady"high alert" heart rates have more cortisol, a hormone linked tostress. Stress on the job, in turn, has been linked to a variety ofhealth problems. Study subjects worked in a variety of positions and were evenlysplit between women and men. The only downside to the experiencewas that the individuals without email reported feeling somewhatisolated. But they were able to garner critical information fromcolleagues who did have email. The Army is examining use of smartphones and such applications asemail for soldiers on battlefields, said David Accetta, spokesmanfor the Natick facility's research and development section. "Thisdata may very well prove helpful," he said. Additional References Citations. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Led Street Light Bulb Manufacturer , Recessed Led Downlight Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits T8 Led Light Tube.
Related Articles -
Led Street Light Bulb Manufacturer, Recessed Led Downlight Manufacturer,
|
