The new 24/7 email paradigm

A new survey commissioned by IT solutions specialist GFI Software concludes that, for the vast majority of workers in the small to medium-sized business (SMB) sector at least, the conventional nine-to-five/five day working week is dead; and right there holding the smoking gun is email. The survey, independently conducted and blind, of 500 employees within the UK SMB workspace, looked at work-related email habits around usage both during the accepted working day and after hours. Although, having looked closely at the results of the survey, the truth of the matter is that the boundaries between work and home have become so blurred as to be almost hypothetical. The fact that 74.6% of people asked admitted that they check their work email at the weekend should come as no surprise at all. I know I do. That said, I'm not amongst the 44% who check work-related email after 11pm although I will admit to checking my inbox while on holiday just like 53.7% of folk do. Outside of 'normal' work hours, 11% check email in real time (whatever that may be) and 27.4% check email 'several times' a day (whatever that may be).