Study points to spamming, unnecessary cc-ing and improper archiving as the biggest obstacles in effective use of emails
GFI Software, a leading provider of messaging and security software, today announced the findings of its third annual 
independent study into email user habits, which revealed that work email is encroaching into the personal lives and free time of employees more than ever. Of those surveyed, some 58 percent admit to checking work email at least once a day in their personal time, up six percent, while 39 percent admit checking multiple times a day or in real-time through pre-work mornings, evenings, weekends and days off. Further more, 39 percent regularly check their work email after 11pm.
Satcom Infotech Pvt ltd, India’s leading value added distributor in the security domain, is a distributor of GFI products in India. It adds value to its partners and resellers by distributing the entire product line of GFI which helps the customers through Email, Messaging and Network Security Solutions.
Mr Vinod Kumar, Managing Director at Satcom Infotech says, “Striking perfect balance between personal and professional life is of utmost importance as it impacts the physical wellbeing, emotional stability and work efficiency of employees. As we see an increased perforation of devices into our daily lives, maintaining a balance will continue to be an uphill task.”
The GFI survey studies the employees email interaction behavior as 
well as the hindrances faced in the effective work email use. It says 37 percent of the people surveyed see spam as the biggest hindrance in the effective use of email while 27 percent sighted CCing vast number of people as a major obstacle, which creates high-volume ‘Reply All’ loops of unhelpful and difficult-to-navigate email traffic. Key findings from the survey include:
Monitoring of work email outside of work hours is inescapable, with 74 percent of those surveyed regularly checking their work email at weekends
- A further 54 percent admit to checking work email while on vacation
- One quarter (25 percent) feel compelled to reply to work emails within 15 minutes of receipt of an email
- In total, 67 percent of respondents reply to work emails in under one hour, while over six percent take more than a week to reply
- Down five percent from 2014, the survey found that 25 percent of workers surveyed use their work email account for personal activities. The drop suggests increased concern over company monitoring of workplace email and Internet use
- Over 36 percent of work email users surveyed do nothing to organize their email, including archiving, leaving all incoming mail in their Inbox
- About 13 percent have had an argument at home due to them checking work email during family time.
While most of those replying to email are motivated to do so quickly, those receiving email do not expect such a fast response. Only 11 percent of those surveyed expect a reply inside 15 minutes, while only 53 percent expect a reply in one hour or less, far lower than those actually responding in that time.
“Companies can and should do more to address this and help staff achieve a sustainable work-life balance. Companies need to put tougher measures in place to tackle spam and malware and make archiving easier for people.” says Mr Sergio Galindo, General Manager at GFI Software.
The survey revealed a substantial level of work leaking into personal and family occasions. For example:
Nearly eight percent have gone through work email while attending an event at their child’s school
More than six percent have checked email during a wedding
Four percent have actively checked email while either they or their partner was in labor
Three percent have checked email during a funeral
