More than a quarter of the average worker’s day is spent answering and reading emails, according to a new survey.
McKinsey Global Institute and International Data Corp. found that email is the second-most time-consuming activity for workers, next to “role-specific tasks.” The consultant claims that time spent on email can be cut by 25%-30% by introducing social networking communications into a business. Doing so would free up 7% to 8% more of the workweek for other tasks. Assuming an eight-hour day, that translates to about two hours, 14 minutes a day spent on emails
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Overall, the survey found that Americans spend 11 hours a day communicating and consuming messages in person, via watching TV, reading and using email.
The McKinsey report didn’t outline the number of emails workers process per day. However, a report from the Radicati Group this year found that the average corporate email user sends and receives about 105 emails a day.
Despite spam filters, about 19% of messages are spam. Another report from Radicati expects those stats to remain static through 2014.