1 in 3 suffering "email stress"

Most feel pressured to reply ASAP

14 August 2007 11:37 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Getting too many emails? Getting stressed by them? Then you aren't alone according to a new research from Glasgow and Paisley universities.

According to their research, more than one in three of us suffer from email stress on a daily basis.

The trial, conducted by lead researchers Karen Renaud, a computer scientist from Glasgow University, and psychologist Judith Ramsay, of Paisley University, surveyed almost 200 workers and tested how often people checked there email compared to how often they actually checked to see if "they had mail".

The results found that although the workers said they only checked their inbox four times an hour, monitoring software actually revealed that they looked more often, with some workers viewing their emails every one and a half minutes.

A further 28% said they felt "driven" when they checked their messages because of the pressure to respond.

Just 38% of workers were relaxed enough to wait a day or longer before replying.

However according to the results, women are most affected.

The survey found that the female works felt more pressured into replying quicker.

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