Email overload at work: an analysis of factors associated with email strain

ABSTRACT

Almost every office worker can relate to feelings of email overload and stress, but in reality the concept of email strain is not well understood. In this paper, we describe a large-scale nationwide organizational survey examining the relationship between email use and feelings of email overload and task coordination. We found that higher email volume was associated with increased feelings of email overload, but this relationship was moderated by certain email management strategies. The contribution to the field of CSCW is a better understanding of the concept of email related stress, and initial scale development for the assessment of email-related overload and perceptions of the work-importance of email.

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Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Collaborative and social computing

    • Collaborative and social computing systems and tools

      • Synchronous editors

    • Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms

      • Computer supported cooperative work

• Information systems

  • Information systems applications

    • Collaborative and social computing systems and tools

      • Synchronous editors

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Computing and business

      • Computer supported cooperative work