British workers are becoming more stressed and finding it difficult to leave their work in the office - even checking email on holiday, according to research.
Almost half (45%) of workers surveyed by PruHealth have seen their stress levels increase in the last year and a further 49% are doubtful that their stress levels will improve in the future.
And one in ten (9%) of employees said they were likely to check their email every day while on holiday.
It seems staff are going to increasing lengths to stay in touch with work outside of working hours.
A quarter (23%) admitted to checking email throughout the evening, 13% just before they go to bed, 13% regularly look at weekends, 11% check first thing in the morning before they get up and 8% in the middle of the night.
A surprising 5% even confessed to reading email on Christmas Day, with 3% doing so on the toilet.
Men appear to be worse than women at checking email throughout the evening, but honours are even at weekends and on holiday.
The research was conducted to launch the insurer's Vitality mental wellbeing suite of tools for individual and corporate members.
Four online assessments are combined to give a complete overview of each individual's emotional health and mental wellbeing with free to access support is then provided through the Living Life online life skills course.
PruHealth head of clinical services Dr Dawn Richards, said: "Workplaces in the UK have become a breeding ground for high stress levels which combined with an addiction to hi-tech gadgets has led to workers developing overzealous behaviour in reading their emails outside of office hours.
"Being unable to disconnect from your working life can heighten stress levels which in turn can contribute to long-term absence from work which is bad for business.
"Workers need to literally switch off not only their minds but also laptops, tablets and smartphones - it is so important to make the most of time away from your working life for the sake of your own health and wellbeing."
