[by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report. [00:05.80]Few people would disagree that email makes our lives easier. [00:11.56]But misusing email can cause problems. [00:15.88]And I'm not talking about hitting the "reply all" button when you didn't mean to. [00:22.64]Answering all those emails and processing all that information [00:28.28]can overload the brain, causing stress. [00:32.40]So says the Future Work Centre, a business based in London. [00:38.08]This company carries out psychological research [00:42.08]on people's experiences in their workplaces. [00:46.84]The centre's Richard MacKinnon was the lead writer of a report on messaging habits. [00:53.20]He calls email a double-edged sword. [00:57.44]In other words, email can be both good and bad. [01:02.08]Americans also use the saying [01:05.16]cuts both ways for something like a double-edged sword. [01:10.32]But back to the culture of emailing. [01:13.44]Emails provide a useful way to communicate. [01:17.44]But they could add to tension in the mind, causing stress. [01:22.20]Come rain or shine, some office workers are under pressure [01:26.68]to read and answer emails all day long. [01:30.68]Jonathan Rowe has an office job in London. [01:35.92]His complaint is a common one: too many emails. [01:40.52]He says reading work emails when you're at home [01:44.48]blurs the boundaries between work and leisure. [01:48.36]"Just general day-to-day pressure to be available all the time, to answer emails all the time, [01:54.44]to perhaps eat into people's leisure time and blur the boundaries between work and leisure..." [02:02.72]Psychologists are concerned about the pressure that workers bring on themselves. [02:09.00]Dr. Richard MacKinnon spoke with VOA News on Skype. [02:13.68]He says that email can be a valuable, time-saving communication tool. [02:19.16]But it can also be a source of stress and even anger for many of us. [02:25.68]He adds that the stress does not come from the number of emails you get. [02:31.40]The problems result from when and how you deal with them. [02:36.04]According to the study, there are two very stressful email behaviors. [02:42.36]One is leaving email on all day – and never signing off. [02:48.28]The other is reading and answering emails early in the day and late at night. [02:54.88]"Checking your email very early in the morning, [02:56.94]or checking it late at night, or leaving your email on all day, [03:00.72]that has a much stronger relationship with email pressure. [03:03.80]So it's not necessarily about how many emails we receive..." [03:07.64]But not all jobs are equally stressed by email. [03:12.24]The jobs most affected by email stress [03:15.40]are: marketing, public relations, [03:18.04]media and Information Technology [03:21.96]Educational experts have also written several reports [03:26.40]on how email overloads are stressing out teachers. [03:30.77]MacKinnon says bad email behaviors are linked to higher levels of stress in office workers. [03:38.20]The Future Work Centre report gives several suggestions on avoiding email stress. [03:45.64]Use email with a plan. [03:48.40]Do not just react to endless email alerts. [03:52.72]If you use an email application, or app, on your device, [03:57.44]close it down when you want to be left alone. [04:01.14]Use your "Out of Office" reply more often. [04:05.88]If you need to communicate with a co-worker, [04:08.64]call or better still walk to their office and talk about it. [04:14.24]Be careful with the "reply all" option. [04:17.88]For example, if you are accepting an invitation to attend training, [04:22.84]just write back to those who need to know. [04:26.12]Trust me. Other workers on that mailing list will thank you. [04:31.04]And accept the fact that if a matter is urgent employers will call you about it. [04:38.52]The Future Work Centre report claims that in 2014, [04:42.96]people sent an estimated 196.3 billion emails. [04:49.76]The average adult spent more than an hour a day answering emails. [04:54.68]Email is certainly not going anywhere. [04:58.28]So, it is important to control your emails [05:01.76]and not the other way around. [05:04.08]I'm Anna Matteo. [05:05.84]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM