Average office sends almost 4,000 emails a year

One in five Brits uses email to gossip to desk buddies about work colleagues.
13 April 2012

Britain's offices are falling silent as email replaces conversation, according to a new study.

The average office now sends 3,840 emails from work every year - the equivalent of 158,064 messages over a typical working lifetime.

Almost half of workers admitted they email the person sitting next to them to avoid making verbal contact. Yet a nosey one in five Brits uses email just to gossip to desk buddies about work colleagues.

The poll of 2,000 office workers was conducted by staffing specialists The Corporate Services Group PLC. One in 10 office staff said they accidentally sent a rude email to the wrong person - with the team manager being the most common target.

The typical office worker spends a staggering 27 minutes a day emailing friends and family, sending an average of 288 messages each year.

This means that 37 per cent of all emails sent by office workers are of a personal nature. And this figure excludes round-robin jokes or virals popping into workers' inboxes around the country.

Office-based staff receive a whopping 336 joke emails every year - most of which are sent by their co-workers.

But it's not just emails causing the silent communication craze - mobile phones are also helping to kill off conversation. A cowardly one in five Brits confessed to dropping a text to their boss instead of calling in sick.

And the silent culture continues with one in five employees regularly plugging themselves into mp3 players at their desks.

Men are twice more likely to work to music than women, both sexes agreed the most common need for tunes was to relieve boredom at work.

Yet, an anti-social one in 20 Brits confessed they listen to music purely to stop colleagues speaking to them.

Tony Martin, Executive Chairman of The Corporate Services Group PLC, said: "We are drifting into a society where social skills will require adjustment to keep up with modern communications.

"Whilst these communication techniques may provide a more secure world, it is essential for workers to continue verbally communicating with colleagues and staff in order to help retain their social skills".

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in