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American Morning
Mental Health Experts Discuss E-Mail Stress
Aired July 26, 2001 - 10:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us to talk about e-mail and the umbilical cord wrapped around our neck it has become, we have Maurene Caplan Grey -- she is senior research analysis for Gartner -- and also Mary Stevens and Christine White -- they are the veterans of clinical social work; they conduct seminars and retreats for workers who, they say, are stressing from e-stress.
Ladies, good morning, and thanks for joining us.
MAURENE CAPLAN GREY, GARTNER RESEARCH: Good morning.
MARY STEVENS, WALKABOUT EXCURSIONS: Good morning.
CHRISTINE WHITE, WALKABOUT EXCURSIONS: Good morning.
KAGAN: Maurene, first, I want to start with you have a little confessional. I want to give you a glimpse into my world. My e-mail account for CNN is up just about constantly. I have another, private, e-mail account, for nonwork matters. There is the cell phone, and then I've also gone into the dark side recently and started doing the Palm Pilot thing. And it's beeping at me that I have messages even while we talk here. How typical am for being wired in here?
CAPLAN GREY: Very typical. What we found out is that, as you suggest, people are almost checking their e-mail almost constantly throughout the business day, but, interestingly, 42 percent of the people we surveyed are also checking their e-mail while they are on vacation.
KAGAN: That is disgusting, can I just say as someone who is going on vacation next week. I must say that one of those e-mail accounts I might check while I am not at work.
We really are not helping ourselves, are we?
CAPLAN GREY: I am sorry, I didn't hear the last question.
KAGAN: We are not helping ourselves?
CAPLAN GREY: No, we are not helping ourselves. In fact, we are always on. We feel that we always have to be connected. So when we are checking our e-mail during our vacation, as an example, when we ought to be refreshing our heads, perhaps it's because we don't want to deal with the 500 e-mails when we get back to the office on Monday morning. But the other reason might be that, with the downturn in the economy, we're very concerned about the security of our job, perhaps, so we want to keep on top of what is going on within our business environment.
KAGAN: On that, let's bring in Mary Stevens and Christine White.
Ladies, isn't there that expectation that if you are not tuned in and if you aren't checking in, that may be you are going to be missing something and not staying on top of things at work?
WHITE: Go ahead.
STEVENS: There probably is that expectation. I think what we do is help people look at how much they're putting that expectation on themselves and try to help them find a midpoint for that that makes sense.
KAGAN: You do that by getting people away from the computer screen, leaving all these little items at home -- leave the cell phone, leave the Palm Pilot, whatever brand you use -- and you take the office workers and take them out into nature.
WHITE: Right, we use the restorative powers of nature to help people to connect with themselves and with those parts of us that get pretty disenfranchised. Because we live in such a high-speed world, it's easy to be organized by our organizers.
KAGAN: When you take them out -- hold on, I'm going to turn off my cell phones, because it's beeping at me that I have messages.
STEVENS: There you go.
WHITE: There you go.
KAGAN: Off. It is off.
I had that little bit of control, but if you were to take me out, I am sure you would have made me leave my cell phone at home. If you take me or other workers out into nature, what do you do besides just getting away from all these buttons?
WHITE: We do ask people to turn off their papers, beepers, and cell phones, if that is at all possible. And we have team-building exercises that are embedded in nature, as well as walking meditation and walks in our city of Ann Arbor that take in historical buildings and outdoor art, and use those as a venue for camaraderie and team building.
KAGAN: Maurene, let's bring you back in here.
CAPLAN GREY: Yes.
KAGAN: It's great to get away, and it's admirable what these women are doing, but then isn't there that feeling of if I spend a half hour in nature, when I come back, do you know how many e-mails will be waiting for me that I haven't checked? CAPLAN GREY: One of the things that we did find -- I didn't hear your last question exactly -- but one of the things that we did find in building on what the other woman had mentioned is that when you are on holiday, perhaps you really do have to check your e-mail. You feel like there is this compelling need to do this. You can't relax unless you do. One of the things that we are suggesting to our clients is that they set aside 15 minutes on Tuesday and 15 minutes on Thursday -- as an example -- make a commitment to themselves on when they will check their e-mail.
Now they can check their e-mail, take care of any business issues, but in a controlled manner, and have the rest of the time available really to relax.
KAGAN: Speaking of e-mail, we actually were asking people to e- mail us today and this morning with their e-mail comments on e-stress. So let's get some of those in here very quickly, at the end, and maybe you can comment on this.
This one is from Mel in D.C.: "I'd love to comment on e-mail, but I don't have time -- too much junk mail to read."
We do get a lot of junk mail, don't we, Mary and Christine?
STEVENS: Yes, we do get a lot of junk mail, and some people can give themselves permission to delete without opening. That's one of the strategies, to prioritize what they read and what they don't read, to look at the sender and decide whether this is a sender that they usually like to check into. So there are ways of dealing with even the junk mail.
KAGAN: Make friends with your delete button. A very good tip there.
Mary Stevens, Christine White, and Maurene Caplan Grey, thank you very much.
I would send you e-mail saying thank you, but I don't want to clog up your system and take your time.
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