Neverfail Mobile Messaging Trends Study: Email Addiction Continues to Push Employees to Risky and Inappropriate Behaviors

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Email addiction continues to drive employees to risky and inappropriate behaviors, according to the second annual Mobile Messaging Study conducted by Osterman Research and commissioned by Neverfail®. Compared to last year, employees still check email outside of work hours at an astounding rate (more than 95 percent of respondents). Respondents also continue to engage in risky and inappropriate behaviors at the same rate as last year with 76 percent admitting to driving while texting (DWT), 78 percent admitting to checking messages in the bathroom and 11 percent admitting to doing so during an "intimate moment." However, air travel appears to be a bit safer with an 11 percent drop in those who admit to sending emails from mobile devices while in-flight – only 30 percent of respondents admit to doing so this year.

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"This reliance and addiction to off-hours email underscores the important role mobile messaging has taken in the business workflow," said Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research. "As email has become integrated into mission-critical business processes, employees are feeling extraordinary pressure to be constantly available. In fact, this year's study finds that employees rely so heavily on mobile email availability that if service went down, even for an hour, 85 percent of respondents indicated that it would impact their business workflow."

Mobile email, friend or foe?

Off-hours email addiction continues at the same rate as last year. Ninety-four percent of respondents check their email after work in the evening and 93 percent do so on weekends. Seventy-nine percent have taken their work-related device with them on vacation, and more than one-third admit to hiding from friends and family in order to check email on vacation. Nearly half of survey respondents admitted to traveling up to 10 miles just to check email during a vacation.

The need to be constantly available for work-related issues continues to drive employees to risky and inappropriate behaviors, including driving while texting (76 percent of respondents admit to doing so), and checking email during important events (20 percent at weddings, 30 percent at graduations and 15 percent at funerals).

As mobile email becomes a way of life for many, it comes as no surprise that more and more people are learning about life changing events via their mobile devices. Survey respondents reported receiving the following news through a mobile device:

• Job offer: 45 percent
• Job loss: 6 percent
• Death of a family member: 35 percent
• Birth of a new family member: 70 percent
• Request for divorce or breakup: 6 percent
• Marriage proposal: 10 percent

Email Reliability Is Mission Critical

Osterman Research also surveyed IT directors, managers and CIOs across a broad range of industries to explore the impact of mobile messaging on overall business processes, and respondents noted an overarching move that has pushed key business workflow components to mobile devices. The study found that just one hour of downtime for mobile email would impact 85 percent of respondents. Additionally, 84 percent of respondents believe that their senior manager's ability to make critical, time-sensitive decisions would be affected without access to mobile email.

"Organizations no longer view mobile email as a 'nice-to-have' but as the lifeline that connects their mobile workforce to the information that they need to communicate and make business decisions. Left unprotected, any mobile email downtime can seriously cripple organizations and result in a significant loss of revenue or ding on a reputation," said Andrew Barnes, senior vice president of corporate development at Neverfail. "You can't put a price on the lifeline that keeps an organization connected to the data that helps them run smoothly from day to day."

About Neverfail

Neverfail® is a leading global software company providing continuous availability and disaster recovery for critical Windows-based applications in physical, virtual or mixed environments. Continuous availability blends high availability, disaster recovery and data protection software with best practice monitoring and automation. Neverfail's predictive approach protects businesses during both IT outages and planned maintenance. Regardless of the type of problem, from a single component failure to a full site disaster, critical business applications remain constantly available to information workers. With Neverfail, users remain continuously connected to applications such as Microsoft® Exchange, SQL Server, File Server, IIS, SharePoint, VMware VirtualCenter, RIM BlackBerry® Enterprise Server and IBM® Lotus® Domino®. More information can be found at www.neverfailgroup.com.

Neverfail is a trademark of Neverfail Group Limited. All other trademarks, including Microsoft, Windows, and Exchange, are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2009 Neverfail Group Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, or translated into any language or computer language, in any form or by any means without prior express, written consent of Neverfail Group Limited.

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