5 signs an always-on culture is harming your team

An always-on culture never feels like a threat until it’s out of control. As a leader, you might even celebrate the employees who respond at all hours, make edits to a deck at an unreasonable hour, or remain reachable while on holiday.?

Silly you. That’s short-term thinking.?

In my last post, we spoke about how the state of ‘always-on’ (that’s: always being digitally connected to work) makes us physically and mentally unwell. That’s not a stretch – it’s a fact. Check out here for the stats. ?

And as with any illness, figurative or literal, there are usually some symptoms you can spot before things go too far.?

So in this week’s post, based on the webinar session with Dr Damien Clarke, we’re exploring the signs that an always-on culture is harming your team. So you can intervene before it’s too late.?

#1: Saying F**k you to face time

There are so many reasons why people turn their cameras off for video conferencing.?

They could be working from a messy room. Or trying to quell their kids at home. Or not wearing pants. It’s not always something sinister.?

Of course, they could be turning off their cameras because of Zoom fatigue.?

According to this Standford article , seeing ourselves on screen for an extended period is mentally exhausting. Ask your teams to fill out Stanford’s Zoom Exhaustion and Fatigue scale questionnaire to get a read on how it affects them.?

Zoom fatigue doesn’t necessarily mean your organisation suffers from an always-on culture, but persistently avoiding ‘cameras on’ could be a sign that your people are struggling with continuous digital contact.

Once you know who’s getting hit hardest, you can make adjustments to ease the strain. Whether that’s video-free meetings from time to time or a free pass for attendees to switch off their videos as and when they please.?

Or perhaps you can quit messaging your team out of the blue for a ‘quick chat’ on Zoom. Phone calls still work for synchronous updates, remember.

#2: Replies outside hours

Some people do their best work at the crack of dawn, others get into their flow when the sun goes down.?

Since remote work became mainstream, it’s not uncommon for people to work strange hours as they discover their most productive hours. And unless your business model is dependent on people being available at specific times, letting employees experiment with their unique productivity cycles should be encouraged.?

Over time, we become familiar with the working patterns of our coworkers. We keep an eye out for our colleagues’ green circles on Slack and get a glimpse of their calendar time blocking every so often.?

So seeing someone who usually keeps the hours of 6 am-2 pm start to become active late a night can be jarring. And you shouldn’t shrug off that feeling, because it could be a sign there’s a problem. As this Harvard Business Review article points out, the more flexible work becomes, the more it can feel like we’re working all hours .?

That’s why it’s essential to make working hours a regular topic of conversation, so you can identify what’s ‘normal’ for employees, and what isn’t. Communicating your working hours regularly can aid asynchronous workflows and help distributed teams work together effectively. It also makes it easier to respect others’ boundaries – something that’s virtually impossible if you don’t know what those boundaries are.?

If an employee is replying at all hours and you’re concerned it’s because they’re trapped in an always-on loop, you need policies that protect boundaries. Asking employees to set their devices to ‘do not disturb’ outside of their working hours is a good start.?

#3: Missing the meaning of leave

Here is mine and with how busy work is I sometimes forget about what I said in this article but I do use it to remind me what the meaning of off time is!

Employees suffering from always-on culture get annual leave wrong. One of two things happens. They either;

• Check their work messages and emails while they’re on leave?
• Never take annual leave, or take a minimal amount

The central tenet of always-on culture is that you’re always connected to work. And when employees are constantly engaged, the thought of disengaging (as you should with annual leave) is terrifying. So instead of disconnecting, they maintain their tether to work tech by checking in on comms.?

We’re even worse when it comes to sick leave in Ireland. According to this Aviva survey, 73% of Irish workers say they’d continue working when they’re unwell . Even illness can’t detach us from work, which is just as bad for business as it is for employees. ??

A lesson for leaders: pay attention not only to your people taking leave but their approach to taking leave. Are they disengaging from the day job? Or hitting send on an email from a Spanish villa?

#4: Top performers lose their crown

No one hires poor performers on purpose – and people don’t perform poorly on purpose, either.?

When employees are always on, there’s no room for them to switch off. And anyone with an ounce of creativity in their body will know, eureka moments rarely happen when you’re sitting at your desk. It’s the walk you take every morning or the off-hand comment made by a friend at the pub that sparks genius.?

If top performers appear to be working constantly, but fail to deliver good work consistently, it’s time to check if they have a case of always-on. Our ability to engage is only as strong as our capacity for disengaging. So when employees can’t disconnect, they deplete a finite resource – their energy.?

#5: People are burning out repeatedly

Burnout has become a brutal rite of passage at work. That needs to change.?

Having an always-on culture fast tracks burnout cases, by placing people in a perpetual state of stress. A few years back, when the WHO classified burnout as an occupational phenomenon , it was described as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”?

We already know too much screen time makes us more stressed and anxious, which proves that the effects of an always-on culture are a precursor to burnout. It’s telling that in the four years, we’ve had a definition for burnout, we’re still failing to manage the condition.?

As this McKinsey report suggests, employers have focused on improving individual experiences with wellbeing programmes , but they haven’t addressed the systemic issues that drive burnout. And according to the employees surveyed, one of the things that undermine their mental health the most is feeling like they’re always on call.?

Burnout isn’t a sign of a dysfunctional employee, it’s a sign of a dysfunctional organisation. Look out for team members taking stress leave, slipping on performance, and quitting the company for good. Are they all in the same team? Or spread across the organisation? Signs like this can tell you if it’s a company-wide issue, or a department or project-related one.

Any one of these five points could be a sign of always-on culture. Or, they could be a sign of something entirely different. The only way you’ll know for sure that it’s doing the rounds in your workplace is if your people tell you. And that requires two things: spaces where your people feel safe to share, and cross-company relationships that honour transparency and trust.?