Too Much E-Mail Decreases Job Satisfaction

In a 50 people company we compared various performance metrics with social networking structure obtained by mining e-mail archives. We also calculated e-mail responsiveness and conducted an individual job satisfaction survey. We identified patterns of productive and less-productive e-mail usage. Results indicate that central network position reduces e-mail responsiveness, while this position in the organization’s social network also seems to be correlated with lower job satisfaction. In particular, the team which sent and received the most e-mail reported the lowest job satisfaction.