Burned Out by Technology: How Perceived Autonomy Shapes Strategies to Reduce Digital Exhaustion.

Knowledge workers report increasing burnout at work. Mounting evidence suggests that increased use of digital technologies in the workplace is one factor contributing to burnout. We integrate various streams of research on digital technology use to develop the concept of digital exhaustion, which we define as the overwhelming state of psychological and physiological fatigue that results from the cumulative use of multiple digital technologies in both work and non-work contexts. Through a qualitative study of digital technology use amongst knowledge workers across a variety of industries, we show that informants are acutely aware of the degree to which they are exhausted by their use of digital technologies in and outside of work and that they enact a number of strategies in an attempt to cope with their exhaustion. The data show that some of these strategies are targeted at the symptoms of digital exhaustion, while others are targeted at the sources of digital exhaustion. We identify a cycle in which a knowledge worker's level of perceived autonomy shapes the strategic approaches they choose to enact. Notably, perceived autonomy is also shaped by whether the chosen strategy is successful, reducing digital exhaustion. We build from these data to develop a grounded theoretical model that explains the relationship between perceived autonomy, strategies targeted at sources and symptoms, and ongoing levels of digital exhaustion. We explore the implications of this model for theories of digital technology use in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]