Always on emails and employee wellbeing: the role of subjective norm of connectivity

Purpose - In recent years, technological advancement has radically changed the landscape of work by creating an “always-on” workplace. As a result, many employees use their information and communication technologies (ICTs) to perform work-related tasks during personal times. This constant availability then paves the way for harming the employee’s wellbeing. Nevertheless, research on ICTs usage after-hours has received limited consideration in organizational scholarship. To address this gap in the literature, current study aims to examine the relationships between workplace telepressure and employee wellbeing with the role of work-related email (WRE) use after-hours and subjective norm of connectivity. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected from 421 employees from different sectors. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and PROCESS macro for SPSS. Findings - The results showed that (1) workplace telepressure positively relates to work-related email use after-hours; (2) work-related email use after-hours negatively relates to employee wellbeing; (3) the subjective norm of connectivity moderates the link between workplace telepressure and work-related email use after-hours and (4) work-related email use during nonwork hours mediates the link between workplace telepressure and employee wellbeing. Originality/value - This study contributes to overcoming the lack of studies by investigating underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions for ICTs during nonwork hours. In this expanded sense, this study broadens our understanding of WRE use after-hours by delineating the impact of workplace telepressure, subjective norm of connectivity and employee wellbeing.