Over two-thirds of Americans check work email during major holidays

While many people around the country have been obsessed with shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the past few days, many Americans spent some of their time during this Thanksgiving holiday on keeping up with work-related emails.

According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive for San Francisco-based startup Xobni, approximately 68 percent of Americans hop onto a computer or use a mobile device to check for any recent work emails during the holidays. In addition, three-fourths of the respondents receive work-related email while spending time with family during major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. An average of 41 percent of the 2,810 respondents feel “frustrated, annoyed or resentful” for receiving work-related emails during their time off for the holidays. The group that feel the strongest negative feelings about work emails are adults between the age of 35 to 44. Younger adults in the 18 to 34 year old category are less offended followed by working adults in the 45 to 54 year old category. Only 17 percent of people 55 and older dislike receiving work emails during the holidays.

On the flip side, 19 percent of people that received work emails during the holiday feel “thankful or relieved” for the distraction. In addition, 27 percent of working adults that do check email during the holidays will look for new emails multiple times a day. Forty-one percent also believe that keeping up with email will reduce the workload when returning to work from the holiday. Middle age adults between the age of 35 to 44 are the most likely to check email during holidays. Approximately 58 percent of men will check email during the holidays while 50 percent of women will do the same. 

Ten percent of respondents in the 18 to 34 year old category admit to checking email while visiting with friends and family as well as eating a holiday dinner or other “inappropriate” times. Six percent of this group also use the excuse of checking work email to avoid holiday commitments or “crazy” relatives. Based of geographic location, people living in the South are more likely to check work email during the holidays compared to people on the East and West coasts within the United States.