Work without boundaries can severely increase number of burnouts

"It used to be about being 'on time'. Now it's about being 'online'," says Norwegian work environment researcher Asbjørn Grimsmo at Oslo's Work Research Institute.

He warns work without boundaries could have major future consequences to our health, because there is a clear link between how much we work and how healthy we are.

"If you work more than 50 hours a week you are at increased risk of developing health problems at a later stage."

Norway's latest work environment research from 2009 for the first time detailed how often workers were contacted by their employer in their spare time. 

"Four percent said it happened every day and nearly one third said at least once a week."

It is not possible to assess whether this reflects an increase, because no such data has been collected before. The reason for contact will have different impacts on the level of stress caused, but there is no data on why the employees are contacted. You can read more on this further down the page, but first a snapshot of today's situation:

If you collate various Nordic statistics you'll quickly see how so-called work without boundaries is becoming more and more common. Work no longer happens within clearly defined working hours or at certain locations.

More people work flexible hours

In 2001 in Sweden some 80 percent men and women still worked exclusively in the daytime. That number is now down by 15 percent, according to a Swedish labour market report from 2009.

More people use computers at work

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people using computers at work. Nearly twice as many women used computers at work in 2005 compared to 1991 - an increase from 36 to 70 percent. The figures for male workers showed an increase from 41 to 68 percent. There is no longer a gender gap in the use of workplace computers.

More people can perform work tasks everywhere

Internet allows more and more people to connect and perform work tasks from home or while travelling. Smartphones and social media increase this number further. We can send and reply to messages in ever increasing ways. Only ten percent of smartphone usage is actual telephone conversations - the rest of the time we use them for internet browsing, email and Facebook as well as games, maps and apps.

More work happens in 'realtime'

We live in a world of 24 hours news, and more and more companies operate 24/7. This increases the need to contact employers and management. Many companies allow customers to complain via Twitter, and an answer is often expected as soon as possible.

More people are expected to be accessible at all times - at work or at home

More and more people choose to have only one telephone, or they cannot afford more than one. They ditch the landline and stick to a mobile or smartphone. This is also often paid for by the employer who might want to make sure all employees are accessible. Called 'Generation Standby' - they're people who never completely disconnect from their work nor their leisure time. They are 'online' for most of the day's 24 hours, except when they sleep.

Not only negative

Asbjørn Grimsmo says there aren't only negative sides to this new technology. It can also result in more flexibility and safety. We can to a larger extent choose for ourselves when we want to do our work. 

"We see an individualisation of work. We are no longer hired to work for a certain number of hours, but to carry out a certain task. Work has become more closely linked to you and your abilities.

"This provides greater opportunities to be noticed and to be awarded for what you do, but it also leaves you more vulnerable if things don't work out the way they should. Project work means it can be very hard to say no to colleagues."

Individualisation also means employees expect to be able to take responsibility for their own working hours and that they should be able to use the internet as they please. According to a survey by internet safety company Clearswift, one in five people would not accept a job where they could not access Facebook and Twitter. 57 percent of 25 to 34 year olds said they updated their social network, sent private email or did internet shopping during working hours. 66 percent of employees also said they compensated for this by working longer hours or during their lunch break.

Many work during their spare time

Working overtime is nothing new. The Swedish work environment survey shows the number of employees forced to cut down on lunch hours/stay late/bring work home on a weekly basis has been relatively stable. The number even decreased somewhat for all groups of workers from 37 percent in 2007 to 36 percent in 2009. That could be a result of the economic downturn, however. Those who need to use their spare time to manage their jobs are most often management level workers within large and medium size companies. For this group the numbers were 68 percent in 2007 and 67 percent in 2009. 

Yet for one group of workers things are looking worse still: primary school teachers. 69 percent of them must spend some leisure time working in order to stay on top of work, and for female teachers the number is 72 percent.

In Denmark a study looked at how many spend at least seven hours on their home computer for work each week.

College teachers topped the survey with 51 percent. The number of primary school teachers taking work home was markedly lower than what came out of the Swedish survey - 27 percent. This could, of course, be down to this group of teachers marking papers by hand rather than using a computer.

"It's just the culture"

People in these surveys say they don't bring work home to earn more or to impress their bosses. 40 percent did it because "you couldn't fit it all in in a 37 hour week" while 45 percent said they did it because "that's just the work culture in our office".

But let's return to the previous question - why does it matter if our employer contacts us in our spare time? Why the fuss?

Asbjørn Grimsmo has an anecdotal answer:

"In research we have something called the Zeigarnik effect. It's named after the Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik who during a restaurant visit with colleagues witnessed a waiter who'd remember orders which had not yet been paid better than those he had been paid for. Their table asked to share the bill, but later realised there was a mistake in the calculation. When confronting the waiter, he had no recollection whatsoever of what they had been eating."

Unsolved questions cause the most stress

"It's the same with unsolved problems. If you get a call from work with an urgent problem which is not solved during the conversation it will linger at the back of your mind in the same way that a crossword solution can suddenly come to you in the middle of the night, waking you up.

"When work calls you quickly go into work modus, but the stress level takes a long time to go back to normal. If you're disturbed too often you won't get the undisturbed rest which you need."

That's why it is not only important how often the office gets in touch, but what kind of contact it is.

"The material from the labour market research shows that those who come home from work psychologically exhausted are also those who are most often contacted by their employer in their spare time." 

The situation the employee finds him or herself in at the time of contact also matters of course. A conversation during a family meal is perhaps more stressful than if you are home alone. Danish researchers have used a number of questions to look at this particular problem: 

 * people answering "always or often".

How to address the problem?

Many people experience a work/life conflict. Others might feel the need to be accessible at all times is a given because that is the culture in their workplace. But the risk of a future burnout is the same. So how to address the problem?Should unions force employers to pay every time they contact an employee in their spare time?

"No, I wouldn't like to turn this into an economic question because that would mean neither the employer nor the employee would actually do anything to address the problem. It's like extra pay for a dirty work environment - the employee doesn't want to clean up because it pays more not to," says Asbjørn Grimsmo.

"A better solution would be time in lieu which would allow people the recovery they need."