Office workers in Britain use e-mail at work to gossip about rivals and flirt with colleagues, according to a new study.
A survey of 500 workers by UK marketing company
edesigns.co.uk
said companies could be losing hours of work time because of misuse of e-mail.
Men were the worst offenders for trying to kindle an online office romance, with 27 per cent admitting to using e-mail for flirting in the office compared with 13 per cent of women.
Gossiping about colleagues online was the second-biggest waste of working time by men.
Among women the biggest e-mail abuse was planning social life with friends, followed by contacting brothers and sisters and gossiping about other staff.
Thirteen per cent of men and 7 per cent of women admitted using e-mail at work to forward Internet sex links.
Other misuses of e-mail included forwarding jokes to colleagues and seeking new employment.