Almost half of all employees spend more office time talking to friends on e-mail than working, according to a survey.
About 43% of workers polled by IT company Hewlett-Packard admitted to dedicating more time chatting on e-mail than doing actual work.
More than 40% said they gave personal issues more priority than work tasks, the survey of 1,000 employees revealed.
Psychologist David Lewis said online gossiping was taking over the workplace.
“Office workers are unwilling to let work commitments interrupt their friendships. So they use chatrooms, group e-mails and group instant messaging to constantly stay in touch and plan social activities,” Lewis said.
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More than 40% of respondents admitted to suffering with a hangover while at work and about half said they got less sleep than they needed – due to ‘working’ long hours.
Hewlett-Packard said workers were struggling to deal with the work-life balance.
