Russian study finds email writing patterns signal workplace burnout

A Russia-based corporate analytics firm, Stahanovits, has found a direct link between workplace email length and writing style and an employee's level of psychological burnout, according to its 2026 data. Under normal conditions, the analysts said, emails run between 60 and 120 words and include a greeting, context, a specific request and a polite closing. In cases of chronic burnout, the study found, those messages shift to two extremes. In 78 percent of cases, employees dropped the greeting entirely, shortened messages by 40 percent to 10–20 words and relied on terse phrases such as "do it," "not working" and "waiting." In 25 percent of cases, the opposite pattern emerged: messages expanded past 200–300 words while losing internal consistency, increasing in repetition and consuming three to four times more energy than usual. The month before burnout fully took hold, negative expressions rose 55 percent while courteous sign-offs such as "thank you" fell by two-thirds. Average response times stretched from 2–4 hours to 8–12 hours, and exceeded 24 hours in 15 percent of cases. The researchers attributed the delays not to laziness but to a drop in dopamine production associated with loss of motivation. They said email patterns could serve as an early warning system for burnout, though no further details were immediately available.