When employees in companies voluntarily (or rather often out of necessity) repeatedly check the company's social media channels in their free time, in the evenings and at weekends and perhaps even become active there, they usually do not do so out of enthusiasm on the one hand or boredom on the other. Rather, they are usually afraid that otherwise something could go wrong and they would then have to pay the consequences.
Such self-exploitation, even if it is voluntary, sooner or later leads to fatigue or even complete social media weariness in most people.
It cannot be left to the responsibility and decision of employees to what extent and even whether they engage digitally for their employer in their free time. There must be very clear rules here. These can certainly be flexible, and of course professional communicators must also be available in the event of a crisis, for example, or interrupt their free time.
But if that becomes the norm, then the processes here are not right either. Then the path to digital burnout is even written into the process as standard.
… but strengthen individual responsibility
However, it is not about bullying employees or taking away all responsibility from them. Those who are at home in communication, especially in fast digital communication, can often judge very well how they work best.
In recent months, many people, for example in their home offices, have developed new routines and their own timetables that suit their individual way of working.
However, some people have had to find new schedules out of necessity, such cryptocurrency data as those who had to combine the sometimes impossible task of a demanding job with months of homeschooling. In these cases, even the best process cannot help. I don't have an immediate solution here either. However, I suspect that those who were already constantly balancing on the edge of digital overload will find it even more difficult here. So this is ultimately another argument for taking a closer look at the previous points.
Make work easier responsibly with the right tools
Where there was previously no systematically introduced collaboration tool that was easy to use for all those involved and, above all, made work easier and did not instead cause more work, additional tools have now often been added.
In companies where almost every new tool was rejected for years on the grounds of compliance, since Corona all sorts of options have suddenly been used for core tasks - mostly tolerated rather than officially permitted. But otherwise no one would have been able to work. But if everything was previously rejected instead of being responsibly tested and implemented, there are now no secure processes for the new digital offerings.
If we now enter a phase of stabilization and normalization of digital collaboration, then such processes are missing, and the discrepancy between compliance and data protection requirements on the one hand and the reality in the company on the other is constantly growing. In many cases, this is where the greatest need for catching up exists.