• by July 2, 2001

According to a recent Gartner survey, 42% of users check their business email while on vacation, while 23% check email on the weekends.

On workdays, 64% of business users check email constantly throughout the day while 34% check email six or more times a day. On average, business users spend 49 minutes per day managing email accounts.

Gartner analysts warn that the "always on" syndrome for business users is redefining not only the workday, but also family weekends and vacations.

"Business use of cell phones, instant messaging and email has crept into our lives on a 24 by 7 basis," said Maurene Caplan Grey, Gartner senior research analyst. "The connected vacationer is always on the alert for business interruptions. For better or for worse, 42% of us go online to look for business emails during vacation."

The Gartner survey revealed that business users receive an average of 22 emails per day. Results also showed that only 27% of these emails require immediate attention and 34% are occupational spam - a Gartner term denoting unnecessary emails from co-workers.

"Email has become the corporate security blanket of this decade," continued Grey. "If executives don't get their 22 emails per day, they actually miss them and begin to feel out of the loop."

"We've become a country that thrives on being connected. The thought of communication happening without our knowledge keeps us tethered to the workplace," Grey concluded.