CTRL+ALT+RELAX – or how digital tools help combat work stress

Modern technologies can effectively support us in managing stress, for example in recovery and relaxation. A virtual reality (VR) supported stress management training developed at our lab achieves significantly greater physical relaxation than the same training on a screen.¹ It teaches you to control your own heart activity through breathing – while your heartbeat is measured and visualised in real time using VR.

The clever thing about it is that the technology is only used when learning the breathing exercise, after which the method works without any technology and contributes to relaxation after just a few breaths. However, the trick is to apply what you have learnt at the right moment. Here, too, new technology can provide support.

Light and dark sides

Thanks to artificial intelligence, we are able to detect stress at the workplace using only mouse and keyboard activity.² If the mouse pointer is moved more frequently and less precisely, for example, this is an indication of stress. By collecting data selectively so that no conclusions can be drawn about individuals and activities, privacy and data security remain guaranteed. The majority of employees surveyed (64 per cent) are also interested in using digital stress management for themselves.³

However, it is also clear that certain ethical guidelines are necessary in this sensitive area. Our survey puts its finger on another sore point: half of those surveyed (52 per cent) are concerned that digitally supported stress management could itself contribute to digital stress. Such a counterproductive effect is not unfounded: After all, the downsides of digital working are also becoming increasingly apparent. For example, digital work interruptions contribute significantly to the level of the stress hormone cortisol in employees.⁴

Wanted: a new work culture

What does this mean for our day-to-day work? On the one hand, it's about self-management: we need to actively manage digital work interruptions, for example by consciously switching off notifications and push messages from email and chat programmes and reserving time for focused work. Take regular breaks and don't spend them in front of the computer or on your mobile phone. Socialising during breaks or getting some fresh air outside not only prevents stress, but also increases well-being and performance. Finally, we can actively help our bodies to reduce stress: By moving or breathing consciously – with or without technological aids.

In addition to our own ability to act, we are also dependent on our working environment. For many of us, this has accelerated with the new digital possibilities or even changed fundamentally thanks to AI. Expectations regarding office presence, times for undisturbed work, availability and free time as well as suitable communication channels need to be renegotiated.

Thanks to their advantages, digital technologies and artificial intelligence have already revolutionised our working world. Now they can also contribute to the digital management of stress and thus to the prevention of chronic stress at work. But that alone is not enough: in my view, we also need a new understanding of how we want to and can work together responsibly in a digital world.

Erika Meins wrote this article together with Mara Nägelin, former doctoral student at the Mobiliar Lab for Analytics at ETH Zurich. The text has been published in a more comprehensive version in the exhibition publication.