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Vault surveyed 901 respondents to determine how e-mail affects productivity, communication and quality-of-life at work. In this year's survey, Vault added new questions on topics including the use of instant messaging, e-mail styles between men and women, and whether or not there should be a penalty for sending spam.
Of the 76 percent sending personal e-mails 48 percent said they sent between one and five a day, 17 percent sent between five and 10 and 11 percent sent over 10. The remaining 25 percent said they did not use e-mail during working hours for non-work purposes.
Of the 36 percent who said they use instant messaging, 20 percent said they use it for personal use while 17 percent said they use it for work purposes only.
Respondents were also asked about flame wars, where colleagues or otherwise get into arguments through e-mail misunderstandings. Of those questioned 21 percent admitted to being involved in a flame war and communication on the phone or face-to-face was seen as the best way of dispelling the dispute.
"E-mail is a positive thing. It has replaced post mail, faxes and even phone calls for a lot of people," said Kate Kaibni of Vault, Inc. "It's an integral part of communication in the workplace. While e-mail can be abused, employers should realise that employees have personal work to do in a day, it's a fact of life. Booking tickets on-line will save a lot more time than going out of the office to book them," she said.
The survey reveals that a casual attitude towards personal e-mail prevails. When asked if they were worried about their employer monitoring their e-mails, 70 percent of respondents said no. One particular respondent said "No, because everyone writes e-mails and if one person gets caught, everyone will. The probability of everyone being reprimanded is low."
Another said, "Everybody has access to the Internet and if you get your job done right, why would they care about what you are doing when taking a break."
Vault, is a New York-based media company focused on careers and its primary offering is an on-line resource at http://www.vault.com, which offers information on over 3,000 companies and 70 industries. Offline, Vault offers six nationally distributed print books, a syndicated newspaper column, and a personalised CV review and career coaching service for job seekers.
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