More than half of UK business users are self-certified as 'emailaholics' according to a revealing new survey by Mesmo Consultancy.

The firm asked 415 business professionals about their email and IT habits while out of the office on holiday or sick leave. More than half of those questioned admitted they continue to check their emails even when outside of work hours.

Two-thirds of those surveyed reported that their frequent email checks were their own choice and not a work requirement, with 12 per cent admitting to looking at their email more than five times a day to stay in touch even when at home or on their holidays.

The extent of this new office addiction was further identified by figures showing that just 17 per cent of respondents allow colleagues to look at their emails when they are out of the office, with 80 per cent also admitting that they read every single email they receive.

"The role that email plays in office politics (CC and BCC being the most lethal weapons), the fear of missing something and being blamed for it, together with the amount of personal emails received at work addresses are surely accountable for the lack of delegation and obsessive inbox scanning behaviour, contributing directly to the addiction," commented Dr Monica Seeley, founder of Mesmo Consultancy

In the growing global business marketplace, many more people have been seen to be spending longer concerned with work, with recent World Labour Organisation figures showing that a quarter of all Brits now work an average of 48 hours each week.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'