How smartphones and tablets are adding TWO HOURS to our working day

Mobile phone adds as much as two hours to your working day.

Owning a smartphone may not be as smart as you think.

They may let you surf the internet, listen to music and snap photos wherever you are...but they also turn you into a workaholic, it seems.

A study suggests that, by giving you access to emails at all times, the all-singing, all-dancing mobile phone adds as much as two hours to your working day.

Researchers found that Britons work an additional 460 hours a year on average as they are able to respond to emails on their mobiles.

The study by technology retailer Pixmania, reveals the average UK working day is between nine and 10 hours, but a further two hours is spent responding to or sending work emails, or making work calls.

More than 90 percent of office workers have an email-enabled phone, with a third accessing them more than 20 times a day.

Almost one in ten admits spending up to three hours outside their normal working day checking work emails, and even those without a smartphone check emails on their home computer.

Some workers confess they are on call almost 24 hours a day, with nine out of ten saying they take work emails and calls outside their normal working hours.

Nearly two-thirds say they often check work emails just before they go to bed and as soon as they wake up, while over a third have replied to one in the middle of the night.

The average time for first checking emails is between 6am and 7am, with more than a third checking their first email in this period, and a quarter checking them between 11pm and midnight.

Ghadi Hobeika, marketing director of Pixmania, said: ‘The ability to access literally millions of apps, keep in contact via social networks and take photos and video as well as text and call has made smartphones invaluable for many people.

‘However, there are drawbacks. Many companies expect their employees to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and smartphones mean that people literally cannot get away from work.

‘The more constantly in contact we become, the more is expected of us in a work capacity.’

使用智能手机也许并不像你想的那样明智。

使用智能手机可以让你随时随地上网、听音乐、拍照片……但也可能让你变成工作狂。

最新调查显示，智能手机能让你随时查收邮件，因此这种花哨的手机会让你每天的工作时间延长多达两个小时。

调查人员发现，由于可以随时用手机查收电邮，英国人每年的工作时间平均增加了460个小时。

科技产品零售商Pixmania开展的这项调查显示，英国人平均每天工作9到10小时，但额外加班的两个小时通常用来收发工作邮件或者打工作电话。

超过90%的职员有可以收发电邮的手机，其中1/3每天查看20次以上。

近1/10的职员承认每天日常工作时间外，还要花长达3个小时来查看工作电邮，没有智能手机的员工甚至要打开家中的电脑查看。

有些员工表示，他们几乎全天24小时待命，其中9成受访者表示要在正常工作时间外收发电邮和接打工作电话。

近2/3的受访者表示睡前和醒后会查收电邮，超过1/3的受访者曾在半夜回复电邮。

受访者在一天中首次查看电邮的平均时间在早晨6点到7点，超过1/3的受访者在这段时间首次查看电邮，1/4的受访者在晚上11点到半夜查看电邮。

Pixmania的市场总监甘地－胡贝卡说：“人们通过智能手机能够接触到几百万种应用程序，能通过社交媒体保持联系，拍摄照片和视频，还有发送短信接打电话，这些让智能手机显得尤为重要。”

“但这也有坏处。很多公司希望员工一周七天每天24小时随叫随到，智能手机意味着人们无法脱离工作。”

“人们之间的联系越频繁，对我们的工作能力期待越高。”

Vocabulary:

all-singing, all-dancing: 花哨的，华而不实的

on call: 随叫随到的，待命的