Dr Matthew Davis quoted in article by The Times on email research study

On Tuesday 1 August, Dr Matthew Davis was quoted in an article by The Times on the results of a recent research study conducted by Axios HQ.

The study found that the best time to send internal work emails comes on Sunday afternoons. The research analysed 8.7 million emails and found that emails sent between 3pm and 6pm had an average open rate of 94 per cent.

However, Dr Davis highlights the negative impact of work life creeping into our personal time:

There’s this phenomenon known as ‘techno invasion’. And that’s a sense of the work technology creeping into your personal life as well. And we know that’s linked to people feeling more stressed, less satisfied with their work and their work-life balance.

Dr Davis goes on to discuss the results of the study:

My worry would be if people see this and think ‘I’ll start sending these more routinely on a weekend’. Because for some people, it’s fine . . . but there is a good proportion of people that this will add to that sense of a burden.

When considering what workers can do to minimise the negative impact of weekend emails, Dr Davis suggests having a separate work email app that can be closed down, turning off notifications and putting footers on emails that say they do not have to be read at the weekend.

Read the full article (Lexis login with University details required).