Research has discovered that Brits have 651 unread emails in their inbox on average, 30% of workers are losing sleep over it

A nationwide study reveals as many as 16 percent of workers claim they are FAILING to keep on top of their emails, with 43 percent saying they are unable to get through their inbox in one day.

In fact, 30 percent claim they are losing sleep because of the sheer weight of work mail they receive each day.

According to the study, the average worker has an average of 651 unread messages in their inbox, with 12 percent checking their inbox first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

One in ten have got into a row at home by replying to work emails when they are meant to be at home relaxing.

The research from Pure Commercial Finance, found that on average busy workers send 24 emails to the wrong person every year.

Overall, 51 percent of those surveyed admit they have missed emails because their inbox was too full, while 17 percent have deleted emails that they’ve never read.

Nearly eight percent have had a serious disciplinary issue because of a missed email, six percent admit they’ve cost the company money for the same issue – and three percent have even been FIRED because of the mail they overlooked.

Six percent admit to having sent a sarcastic email and having it misread while a further four percent admit to having sent an email direct to the person they were talking about .

And a mortified one in 50 have accidentally sent racy images of themselves to clients or colleagues.

Over a third of us (36 percent) have fired off angry emails only to regret them once we’ve calmed down.

And exactly a third have had an email argument with a colleague which they believe could have been solved if they had just talked face-to-face.

Jade Thomas from Pure Commercial Finance says:

“This research shows how emails can be overwhelming and ultimately, take over an employee’s life. It often stops people from doing their daily job as they’re wasting too much time hunting through their inbox and replying to emails that can always wait.

We encourage members of staff to close their inbox for a few hours a day and to focus on their activity. This helps employees be more productive and minimise stress. If something was that important, then the office number is in every employee’s sign-off.”

The research also delved into the email etiquette that we hate most of all and over familiarity was the most heinous offence, with 44 percent of people saying they feel that putting “xx” at the end of work emails was unprofessional.

That was followed by sending emails without proofreading first (32 percent), emoji abuse – by sending smiley faces (29 percent), which was surprisingly seen as more of a faux pas than getting the name wrong of the person you’re emailing (28 percent).

The data showed that people have a lot of trouble with their “x”s, with 22 percent of people saying that they HATE receiving emails with kisses on as they feel obliged to reply with an “x” too. One in five people simply find them annoying and inappropriate.

Not surprising then that only 25 percent of people admit to adding kisses at the end of work emails.

If you want an email read, you should send it to Plymouth as the city is email control capital where residents are most on top of their emails, with an amazing 48 percent having a clear inbox at the end of every day.

Londoners have the most unread mails with 956, compared to people in Nottingham who only have 295 – the lowest on average.

However, the problem may get easier as you get older as 16 to 29-year-olds have 896 unread mails compared to just 327 for the over 60s.