DOI: 10.12688/mep.21609.1 ISSN: 2312-7996

A Thousand Papercuts: Email Communication Difficulties and their Impact on Faculty Well-being

Emily P. Green, Mariah Rudd, Kathleen Cowling, Shari A. Whicker
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Background Burnout and well-being among academic faculty have garnered substantial attention within the medical education literature. While various contributors to burnout have been studied, the role of email management remains relatively unexplored. Objective This study investigated the impact of email challenges on faculty well-being using the Job Demands-Resources model as a framework. Methods In 2023 the authors surveyed faculty across accredited medical education institutions to assess experiences with email management. They collected data on email communication difficulties and their impact on faculty well-being. Results Respondents included 447 faculty from 115 institutions. Results indicated that faculty spent large amounts of time on email-related tasks, and that the demands of email management are exacerbated by institutional firewalls, managing multiple professional email accounts, frequent required password changes, automatic deletion or archiving of emails, and other technical issues. Respondents indicated that email management stressors negatively impact well-being. Faculty reported implementing workarounds to navigate email difficulties, often at the expense of information security and personal resources. Reported positive institution-level changes, while infrequent, included reduced password change frequency, expanded storage space, increased autonomy for email deletion and archival, and enhanced IT support. Conclusions This study illuminates the current role of email as both a job-resource and a job-demand. The results of this study underscore the need for institutional action to address email-related challenges to promote faculty well-being. The authors propose five recommendations for reducing email-related job stressors.

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