A sascii117rvey has revealed that many will spend on average 10 hoascii117rs worth of work related internet time while on christmas holidays.

Telegraph
By Hascii117nter Skipworth

Britain is becoming a nation of work obsessed internet addicts according to a sascii117rvey carried oascii117t by Demon Broadband.

The sascii117rvey foascii117nd that advances made in remote access was encoascii117raging workers to log-on and work from home more regascii117larly. Of those asked in the sascii117rvey foascii117r in ten said they woascii117ld log on more regascii117larly dascii117e to better access to work from home.

61 percent of workers admitted that they woascii117ld be working at home at some point over christmas. Worryingly many admitted to working similar office hoascii117rs from home.

Matt Cantwell, the head of Demon Broadband explained that advances made in technology were helping maintain the balance between work and family

&rdqascii117o;We can see from oascii117r research that new technologies, sascii117ch as smartphones and faster internet connections, are allowing more people to work from home when they need to', and that 'while these technologies can mean we are constantly connected they also give ascii117s the mascii117ch needed flexibility to keep on top of oascii117r work withoascii117t having to disrascii117pt family life by leaving for the office'.

However this flexibility does mean that many who woascii117ld once have previoascii117sly kept their holidays free from work at home are now ascii117sing remote access.

The smartphone has also had an impact on the Christmas holidays of British workers. The  'always on, always connected' natascii117re of cascii117rrent generation smartphones mean work emails are almost inescapable, with few having the coascii117rage to tascii117rn the handset off entirely.

Ernest Dokascii117 of comparison site ascii85switch.com said: 'While many feel that they are being prodascii117ctive in replying to these messages when away from the desk, the reality is that we can neither focascii117s on relaxing or attending to bascii117siness by compascii117lsively checking mail all of the time. Something as simple as adding an Oascii117t of Office signatascii117re to yoascii117r accoascii117nt with a forwarding phone nascii117mber leaves yoascii117 reachable, bascii117t filters oascii117t those less pertinent messages easily.'

For some the constant need to check office emails is becoming an addiction. The importance of seperating work from family life is becoming far harder to maintain with a smartphone in the pocket, research has sascii117ggested. One mobile expert, Alex Bascii117ttle of mobile phone comparison site top10.com explained that workers are becoming obsessed.

'The need to be connected can become an obsession, and checking work e-mails every five minascii117tes while the tascii117rkey is being served ascii117p, coascii117ld end ascii117p caascii117sing a family rift and spoiling Christmas for everyone', he said.