Study: Email addiction causes employees to engage in inappropriate and risky behavior

A new study from Osterman Research says email addictions cause employees to engage in risky or inappropriate behavior.

The firm's second annual "Mobile Messaging Study" polled employees at businesses to learn about their email habits and found that 95 percent of those surveyed check their business email outside of work, 78 percent checked email while in the bathroom and 11 percent said they looked at email during "intimate moments." (We can only guess what that means.) The risky behavior Osterman refers to is driving while texting as 76 percent polled admitted to doing this.

According to the report, this constant need to check work email shows that many employees feel like they are supposed to always be on the job.

"As email has become integrated into mission-critical business processes, employees are feeling extraordinary pressure to be constantly available," Osterman Research President Michael Osterman said in a statement. "In fact, this year's study finds that employees rely so heavily on mobile email availability that if service went down, even for an hour, 85 percent of respondents indicated that it would impact their business work flow."

Some information the firm found: About 94 percent of those surveyed check work email at night. Nearly 80 percent said they bring their mobile devices that can access work email with them on vacation, and 33 percent revealed that they hid from family and friends while on vacation just to check email. Inappropriate behavior comes into play when people check up on email at weddings (20 percent admitted to doing this) and funerals (15 percent admitted to this).

For more:
- check out this CNET article

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