Study: Real-time communication stresses German office workers

More than half of German office workers (56 percent) feel overwhelmed at least occasionally by notifications or the pressure to respond immediately. This is shown by a current study by Atlassian. 59 percent of respondents spend two or more hours daily answering emails or chat messages. In an Atlassian study from 2024, 78 percent stated that they can hardly attend to their core work if they participate in all scheduled meetings.

Flextime has long been established as standard in German offices: 69 percent of respondents enjoy a certain degree of freedom in managing their working hours. However, this flexibility does not automatically lead to less stress. The daily work routine in many companies is designed in such a way that employees must be available almost at any time for short-notice meetings or to answer messages.

Time-shifted work as a way out

In its evaluation of the study results, Atlassian recommends asynchronous work models: Here, collaboration takes place time-shifted, without all participants having to be online at the same time. Employees make their contribution when it fits their individual work rhythm – for example, via recorded videos, comments in documents, or project management tools instead of live meetings or chats. According to the study, employees who already work asynchronously save an average of more than two additional hours (about 140 minutes) per week, which they can instead use for focused work.

The most commonly used methods of asynchronous collaboration in Germany are written responses via comment functions (46 percent) and the use of voice messages or recorded video updates instead of live meetings (32 percent). More than a third of respondents (35 percent) regularly work across different time zones.

Reservations and positive experiences

Not all office workers are open to asynchronous methods: 30 percent fear that supervisors might interpret this way of working as lower availability. 27 percent worry that decisions could be delayed or processes slowed down. However, the experiences of those who already work asynchronously paint a positive picture: almost two-thirds (65 percent) report higher productivity, 54 percent experience less stress, and 63 percent state that they are more satisfied in their job through asynchronous work.

For the $(LEhttps://www.atlassian.com/blog/state-of-teams-2025:study|_blank) Atlassian, in cooperation with Censuswide, surveyed a total of 4.000 office workers, including 1,000 from Germany, from July 1 to 4, 2025, about their experiences with flexible and asynchronous work models.

(fo)