U.S. workers are having a hard time disconnecting from work, and that could be causing burnout, according to a new study by Pew Research Center. The report, which interviewed more than 5,700 U.S. adults who are working full- or part-time about how the coronavirus pandemic affected their workplace and how they have adapted to remote work, revealed how some employees are not able to draw clear boundaries between work and home.
While workplaces greatly vary by industry, location and occupation, which makes it “hard to generalize,” Kim Parker, director of social and demographics at Pew said, “these specific findings suggest that there is a significant share of workers who are feeling overworked and that is often correlated with job stress.” “But it doesn’t necessarily mean people are unhappy at work,” she added. Boundaries around responding to work calls and messages More than half of U.S. workers said they respond to work emails or other messages outside of normal work hours, the Pew study found. 28% said that they do so “extremely often or often” and 27% said they do so “sometimes.” On …