--- title: Company Bans Email for 1 Week, Employee Stress Levels Plummet description: Gabel workers were required to meet face-to-face and talk about their work instead of sending emails. Stress levels plummeted. authors: - name: Alicia Adamczyk url: https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 201 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/aliciaadamczyk former_staff: true published: '2015-11-12T17:00:52.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T07:32:33.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - Email - Workplace word_count: 348 canonical: https://money.com/work-email-ban-italy/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![in person meeting](https://img.money.com/2015/11/151112_car_emailban.jpg?crop=0px%2C0px%2C2100px%2C1181px&quality=85) A company in Italy is saying *basta* to overflowing email inboxes, calling for a one-week internal email ban for all employees. Gabel, a textiles company based in northern Italy, surveyed employees about their work concerns, the [BBC reports](http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-34778213). The top complaint is one that will be quite familiar to office workers in the U.S.: too many emails. Company president Michele Moltrasio and other managers decided to do something about the never-ending stream of emails within the company. For one week (this week), instead of sending electronic communications, workers will meet face-to-face and actually talk about work (apparently Moltrasio has never [heard of Slack](https://time.com/4092354/how-e-mail-killer-slack-will-change-the-future-of-work/)). The president says during the email ban, workers are "rediscovering the pleasure" of talking to each other. "Even if from next week we all go back to using email, these days of experimentation are very worthwhile, to understand and rethink the methods and pace of working," Moltrasio told the BBC. It's a practice that's looking more and more appealing around the world, as workers young and old look for better ways to manage their time and productivity. As [TIME reported last year](https://time.com/3560203/stress-work-email/), "52% of Americans [check their e-mail](http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/09/connected-work.aspx) before and after work, even when they take a sick day." All the email and pressures to remain in touch with work have been linked to increased stress levels. But it's not just post-work e-communications that are detrimental to our health. A 2012 study from the [University of California, Irvine](https://money.com/best-colleges/) found that people who were [unable to access email for five days](http://www.businessinsider.com/emailing-is-bad-for-your-health-2012-7) were not only more productive, they had "more natural, variable heart rates." Over at the *Atlantic* today, Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, said [people check their email](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/kill-email-die-email/415419/) on average about 77 times per day, and it's the checking of email (rather than writing) that is most stressful. So, for the sake of your heart (and your productivity), consider following Gabel's example. If you can't completely ignore email for a week, perhaps at least you could check it a bit less frequently. **Read Next: [Groupon Could Owe You Money](https://money.com/groupon-class-action-lawsuit-refund/)** ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/work-email-ban-italy/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Work-Life Balance", "item": "https://money.com/work-life-balance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Company Bans Email for 1 Week, Employee Stress Levels Plummet" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/work-email-ban-italy/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/work-email-ban-italy/", "name": "Company Bans Email for 1 Week, Employee Stress Levels Plummet", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-11-12T17:00:52.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/work-email-ban-italy/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/work-email-ban-italy/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T07:32:33.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Company Bans Email for 1 Week, Employee Stress Levels Plummet", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/11/151112_car_emailban.jpg?crop=0px%2C0px%2C2100px%2C1181px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "151112_CAR_EmailBan" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alicia Adamczyk", "url": "https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2016/01/alicia-headshot-2.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "email": "alicia.adamczyk@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/aliciaadamczyk" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-11-12T17:00:52.000Z", "description": "Gabel workers were required to meet face-to-face and talk about their work instead of sending emails. 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