With smartphone use on a rise, email stress has become a new
health hazard for young Indian professionals.
“Now, because of instant communication, not only can he be
sent an email at any time, he is also held accountable by superiors to respond
to it as soon as possible,” rues Dr Ajit Dandekar, Head, Department of
Psychiatry, at Nanavati Hospital in Vile Parle, Mumbai.
Thirty-five-year-old Shikha Girgla,
a Delhi-based brand consultant and a happy-go-lucky personality for her peers,
never thought that shifting office emails to her smartphone will lead her to
reach a stage where she will require medical attention.
The habit of checking e-mails every
10 minutes or so caused her sleeplessness, anxiety and lack of concentration in
family affairs. After much deliberation and counselling, she finally decided to
deactivate office emails as soon as she reached home. Today, Girgla feels much
better and in control of her life.
Like Girgla, if you too can’t avoid
responding to work or client emails after every few minutes, you may be
suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that is debilitating and needs
immediate intervention, experts say.
With smartphone use on a rise, email
stress has become a new health hazard for young Indian professionals.
“Besides the immediate impact on
physical health, excessive dependence on technology like checking emails every
few minutes is likely to lead to poor lifestyle choices, disturbed sleep, a
source of distraction and social alienation,” says Dr Samir Parikh, Director of
Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi.
With the blurring of lines dividing
work from home, individuals are being more prone to have unclear boundaries
which is likely to contribute towards increasing stress levels and
intermingling of roles, thereby having an adverse impact professionally,
personally as well as in social aspects.
Earlier, workplace issues would
mostly be encountered when the employee was physically present at the
workplace.
“Now, because of instant
communication, not only can he be sent an email at any time, he is also held
accountable by superiors to respond to it as soon as possible,” rues Dr Ajit
Dandekar, Head, Department of Psychiatry, at Nanavati Hospital in Vile Parle,
Mumbai.
Young professionals are lining up at
his clinic with complaints of Insomnia, anxiety and insecurity — at the root of
which lies the unhealthy work culture.
Constantly hounded by work
communication, the stress is clearly visible on their faces.
“In recent years, I have counselled
several young professionals suffering from an obsessive need to check email
every few minutes at the cost of their sleep and general health,” Dandekar
adds. He says this is also true for self-employed professionals.
Having emails accessible to us at
one click can be used as a major advantage as it saves time, energy and also
improves connectivity. At the same time, an excessive dependence could be
aggravating.
“If an individual develops such a
dependency, having the need to constantly check for emails regularly, this
tendency could be manifested in the form of an anxiety, which would be
hampering the individual’s personal, social as well as occupational
functioning,” explains Dr Parikh.
According to a study released by the
apex trade association Assocham in April this year, over 42 percent of
employees in the Indian private sector suffer from Depression or General
Anxiety Disorder due to demanding schedules, high stress levels and
performance-related perquisites at work.
Delhi had the highest number of such
employees, followed by Bengaluru, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and
Pune.
According to Dr Manish Jain,
Psychiatrist at BLK Super Speciality Hospital, checking emails frequently has
become a new trigger of anxiety for the working professionals who come to see
him quite often nowadays.
“A new deadline or task can just be
communicated through mail which may become a trigger for anxiety attacks for
some,” he says.
If one’s work environment is
extremely demanding, there is a greater likelihood of a work-life imbalance. To
add to this, an excessive dependence on technology could definitely blur the
demarcation between work and home, thereby leading to an overflow of stress
into various aspects of the individual’s functioning.
Such an anxiety is likely to
interfere with the person’s cognitive as well as social functioning. “People
with mild pre-existing anxiety traits are at a higher risk,” Dr Jain stresses.
Sleep deprivation and long-standing
unattended stress are known to disturb endocrine functions and biological
rhythm. This leads to various psychological and psychosomatic disorders such as
Depression and Anxiety.
Self-discipline is the key when it
comes to dealing with work communication.
Learn to say a polite but firm no
when the demand on your time and body or the expectation is unreasonable.
“Beyond office hours, you owe your
body proper sleep, relaxation, exercise and a balanced diet,” the experts
emphasise.
Source |
Indian Express | 10 September 2015
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