Managers penalize employees for unplugging, even as they recognize its value
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Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
A new study confirms what most workers already know — even when a manager encourages you to unplug outside of work hours, you'll get dinged for doing it.
Why it matters: Decades of research has consistently found that some work-life balance is good — both for individual employees and their companies — but deep-rooted beliefs about the value of over-work are holding everyone back.
Between the lines: This "detachment paradox" is the headline finding of the research, from professors at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, who wrote about it recently for Harvard Business Review.
- Researchers conducted 16 controlled experiments with 7,800 participants, using different scenarios to connote a worker's "detachment" from the office, comparing them to those who didn't detach.
- Some of the experiments involved managers with C-suite experience.
- In some instances, participants were told employees went on a weekend getaway, leaving their devices behind; in others, the workers were described as bringing a device, but having set an out-office-message on their email.
- Researchers asked participants to what extent they thought these "detached" workers would be recharged and motivated to work when they returned to the office. Managers mostly said they'd come back recharged, and be more productive.
Yes, but: Despite that, managers consistently downgraded the detached workers on promotability and commitment.
- "The same people who literally just said the workers are going to come back recharged and motivated, also rated them lower on promotability," explains Eva Buechel, on of the study's authors.
- "Employers are going against their own interest here, that's what's so weird about it," she says.
The reason, they write, has to do with how leaders interpret effort and commitment:
- "We are trained, often unconsciously, to value visibility and responsiveness as a proxy for dedication. Employees who respond late at night or skip vacations are seen as 'going the extra mile.'"
The big picture: The findings come at a rocky moment for white-collar workers. Hiring has slowed, and management is cracking down — rolling back the perks and, even the pay, that defined the 2010s and peaked in the early 2020s job boom.
- Talk of burning out is on the rise, a new Glassdoor survey finds.
Recommendations to break the cycle of overwork include:
- Ensuring you're evaluating workers on actual performance, not hours logged.
- Discouraging managers from contacting employees outside of work hours, and instituting clear formal policies that set boundaries.
Reality check: The study didn't look at real-life scenarios — or consider what kinds of pressure managers might be under themselves.
- This is a high-class problem; overwork is more endemic among those with higher-incomes and advanced degrees. For lower-wage earners, sometimes it's hard to even get enough hours on the schedule to get by.
The bottom line: Working hard doesn't have to mean working all the time, but a lot of folks see it that way.
