Fully 72 percent of employed adults in the US use the internet and email at least sometimes while they are at work, and 50 percent of those email users say they check their email on weekends, according to a report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life project
The number of workers who report playing online games or working on their own journal or blog while at work is negligible. One in 10 workers say they contribute writing, files, or other content to their employer’s website; 6 percent say they use instant message applications.
Despite widespread and growing internet and email use at work, US workers say they have mixed views about the impact of technology on their lives, according to Pew. On the one hand, they cite benefits of increased connectivity and flexibility that the internet and all of their various gadgets afford them at work. On the other hand, many say those tools have added stress and new demands to their lives.
Some 22 percent of employed email users say they are expected to read and respond to work-related emails, even when they are not at work. Blackberry and PDA owners are more than twice as likely to report that their employer expects that they will stay tuned in to email outside of the office. Fully 48 percent say they are required to read and respond to email when they are away from work.