UK office workers spend 3 months a year on emails

A survey carried out by Adobe shows the average UK office worker spends three months of every year reading and replying to work and personal emails.

This is almost a month longer than German employees, who average 62 days a year on emails. However, the French top the list at 99 days a year.

Emails are taking increasingly more time out of office workers’ day, with survey respondents reporting it takes 10% more time than it did in 2015. Round the clock availability on mobiles is the most likely cause for this, with 79% saying they regularly check messages outside of office hours. UK employees also read and respond to an average of 43 messages at the weekend – far more than Germans at 17 and French at 16.

It would appear this habit is eating into workers’ downtime, as 66% check emails while watching TV, 53% do so in bed, and 43% use their commute to catch up or get ahead of messages – with less than a quarter waiting until they get in the office to scan their inbox. Sadly, 66% of respondents said they engage with emails during their holidays.

The survey also explored the reasons for the increase in emails seen in today’s office; a quarter said the most annoying behaviour leading to excessive messages is using “reply all” unnecessarily, followed closely by sending emails in place of in-person conversations and needlessly copying managers into chains.

The good new is UK workers are starting to fight back; 47% unsubscribe to newsletters they no longer need, and 44% action emails (by deleting, replying, or filing them) as soon as they receive them in order to keep their inbox from clogging up. A quarter dedicate certain hours to managing emails, while a third have resorted to a “digital detox” break from messages of around six days.