So restless, you can't stop emailing after midnight. How bad is that?
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It's the definition of Restless: Working well into the night, past midnight. Americans have strange work habits. Roughly 1 in 4 puts in at least a few hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on a regular basis, according to a paper titled “Long Workweeks and Strange Hours,” published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private research group. That compares to one in 14 workers in France or The Netherlands. The fact that employees are putting in hours after works over can actually be detrimental to a business. Yes, they may be working more hours but they will get fatigued and will not work as hard during normal hours. Luckily, there are lots of opportunities to improve employee engagement, one of which is allowing flexible working hours, so business owners who are seeing the effects of their employees over-working should look into it.
The finish-dinner/play-with-kids/then-log-on phenomenon seems to have permanently invaded American homes, and you probably didn't need a research paper to tell you that. Ask any group of employees if they've ever sent a work email after midnight and they'll probably look at your like you've asked a really dumb question.
An earlier version of this story first appeared on CNBC.com. Click to see all my CNBC.com stories.
There's some obvious pitfalls from failing to separate work and home life, particularly late at night. Many involve domestic tranquility. But plenty of workers say midnight emails can actually be a stress reliever. If you think the complete opposite and are looking for a way to feel less stressed when you get home from work, maybe the use of something like CBD oil could be of assistance. You never know if you don't try.
"For me, it's less stressful overall to deal with things when I think of them -- even middle of the night, or on vacation -- then to save things for the morning, or when I get to the office," said Adam Berliant, who works at Microsoft near Seattle.
Part of that stress relief comes from simply sharing an idea before it disappears into Dreamland, never to return again.
"Whenever I did send an email after midnight it was usually because I was afraid I would forget what was on my mind at that point," said Mimi Antonetti, a caterer near Pittsburgh.
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Geograpy and the global economy play a too. Portland, Ore.,-based social media consultant Carri Bugbee finds herself in late-night dialogs often with her clients in Sweden.
In other words, late-night emails are just as likely to be friend or foe, many argue.
Russell Wayne Clayton is a professor of management at St. Leo University in Florida, and he's studied the issue. For him, whether night work is healthy or unhealthy depends on a simple issue: who's in control. People who email because they “have to” are miserable; people who email because they “want to” are probably making a sensible trade-off.
"Individuals who have the choice as to whether or not they want to check e-mail at midnight ... may have their work-life balance less impacted, if impacted at all, by the act of the midnight e-mail logon," he said. "In fact, someone like that may actually choose to check e-mail at midnight because they can do so and because they might be more productive then."
For example, some workers might earn permission to leave the office at 4:15 to pick up the kids from school in exchange for the expectation they will finish up project from home later that night. Such flexible arrangements reduce stress.
"In my case, I check e-mail late after my daughter has gone to bed," Clayton says. "This allows me to play with her before her bedtime and is a strategic choice on my part. I also have a job with flexible work hours -- being a professor comes with a high level of control over my work hours -- as well."
Plent of night owls believe they are more productive after others turn into pumpkins. Post-midnight work carries other perils, however. Studies show people with late-shift sleep schedules are more prone to depression, and somes claim those who regularly stay up past midnight suffer from something akin to chronic jet lag. Meanwhile, looking at email right before heading to bed can make it harder to fall asleep. Scientists believe the glow from electronics confuses the brain about nighttime, delaying the release of sleep-inducing hormones. And few of us sleep easily moments after wrapping our heads around work problems.
Some parts of the world are trying to dispatch with late-night work email entirely. Germany is famously trying to ban after-work emails through federal legislation -- a step that many workers interviewed for this story would oppose.
But if late-night emails are to remain a choice, workers -- and their employers -- need clear expectations. Sometimes, "voluntary" work isn't really voluntary.
"When you're working 80 hour weeks with no paid overtime…” said one midnight email-er who asked not to be named, for obvious reasons, “…and your manager is at home sleeping while you work your (behind) off for a deadline, you want to make sure they know.”