Constant Digital Interruption Is One of the Biggest Drivers of Workplace Stress

Melissa leads a global team launching a new product. With colleagues spread across time zones, calls start early and often run late into the evening. More than 60 percent of her day is spent in meetings, while the remaining time is fragmented: she starts a report, gets an MSTeams message, checks her dashboard, replies on WhatsApp; 20 minutes later, she can no longer remember what she originally sat down to do. Increasingly, she struggles to switch off and sleep well.

When we equipped Melissa with a heart rate variability (HRV) measurement device, the data were troubling.

For most of the day, her body remained in a state of high sympathetic activation, indicating she was stressed. This was puzzling: The product launch was on track, and her team was functioning. But the density of activity, the length of the day and the constant need to respond and keep things moving had created what felt like the HRV signature of frantic.

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