The Sunday Night Email Problem

Sunday evening. A message from a colleague. You quickly check your email before going to sleep. Sound familiar? For almost half of Dutch employees, this is no longer the exception, but the norm.

Research from CBS and TNO shows that many employees, especially managers, are structurally available outside working hours. Not occasionally. Structurally.

The problem: if your mind never really disconnects from work, your brain doesn't get the chance to recover. That increases the risk of chronic stress, sleep problems and eventually burnout. And with that, the risk of absence as well.

And the tricky part lies in why we do this. Responding quickly feels like commitment. Not responding feels like falling short. That's how a culture emerges where nobody dares to be the first to let go.

This isn't an individual problem. It's team culture. And that means it has to be solved at team level too.

There's no law that regulates being unreachable outside working hours. But the Working Conditions Act does require employers to ensure healthy working conditions, including protection against excessive workload. So the responsibility doesn't lie with the employee who "should just say no." It lies with the organization.

That's where absence prevention starts. Not stepping in only once someone reports sick, but spotting the signals earlier: which teams or roles are structurally online outside working hours, and where is the pressure running highest? Whoever sees that in time can adjust course before a habit turns into a dropout.

At Vitsall, we map this out with our risk scan, at team and role level, and with respect for employee privacy.

Recognize this in your organization? We're happy to think it through with you.