As the coronavirus has forced many of us to work from home, the need to multitask and keep work going alongside homeschooling and various other household tasks has led many of us to become masters of multitasking.  The mental challenges this poses is underlined by new research from the University of Houston.

“Not only do people experience stress with multitasking, but their faces may also express unpleasant emotions and that can have negative consequences for the entire office culture,” the researchers explain.

The researchers used an algorithm to analyze the emotions people experience when working on an essay writing task.  One group of volunteers were asked to answer some emails before starting the task, while another group received regular emails throughout the task.

“Individuals who engaged in multitasking appeared significantly sadder than those who did not. Interestingly, sadness tended to mix with a touch of fear in the multitasking cohort,” the researchers say. “Multitasking imposes an onerous mental load and is associated with elevated stress, which appears to trigger the displayed sadness. The simultaneous onset of fear is intriguing and is likely rooted to subconscious anticipation of the next disruption.”

Changing mood

The researchers believe that so pervasive are the distractions we encounter throughout our working day, that this multitasking comes to define our mood.

The recordings revealed that those who were constantly interrupted by emails displayed angry emotions, which was in direct contrast to their peers in the other group, who generally exhibited neutral emotions as they answered emails prior to the task beginning.

The authors remind us of the harmful impact such negative emotions can have on the overall culture of an organization.  They highlight that emotional contagion is a very real risk, especially in an open office where our colleagues are so visible, both in terms of their conscious and unconscious responses.

There has obviously been considerable disruption caused by the COVID-19 crisis, but the researchers believe their work reminds us that when we return to the workplace, we should pay attention to the multitasking habits of employees.

“Currently, an intriguing question is what the emotional effect of multitasking at home would be, where knowledge workers moved their operation during the COVID 19 pandemic,” the researchers conclude.