Receiving a message from work after working hours: Always a bad thing?
Summary
n recovery, measured through burnout and well-being. Further, the influence of several characteristics of these messages – necessity, action encouragement, and valence – on several outcomes - feelings of appreciation, feelings of commitment, and emotion - was examined. A questionnaire was used to collect data among 115 Dutch participants between 20 and 64 years old. No significant correlations were found between the actual number of messages received and burnout and well-being. However, several significant relations were found between the message characteristics and outcomes; messages with a positive content and messages that were considered necessary tented to be associated with positive outcomes, such as feelings of commitment, positive emotion, and the feeling of being appreciated. Based on this study, it appears that receiving many messages after work might not be such a bad thing, as long as characteristics of the message such as necessity and valence are taken into account. Research on this topic is limited, and therefore future research on this topic is recommended