Wake up, brush teeth, log on: Most techies check email before 9am

The traditional nine-to-five office day is ebbing away, with techies seemingly unable to resist checking their email before breakfast.

The majority of IT workers are now checking their email, either on a PC or a mobile device, before 9am, according to a poll of silicon.com readers.

The research found that 8am was the favoured time for techies to log on to their email, preferred by 33 per cent of those who took the poll.

However, an even earlier rising 22 per cent confessed to firing up their email at 7am while a bleary-eyed 11 per cent do the same at 6am.

The majority of email addicted techies can't resist logging on before 9am
(Photo credit: Mzelle Biscotte via Flickr.com under the following Creative Commons licence)

With mobile email devices such as the BlackBerry now ubiquitous among techie and non-techie staff alike, it's no surprise that many techies are logging on so early. According to separate research by employment law consultancy Peninsula, staff who use company smartphones tend to work an average of 15 hours per week longer than those who don't, with just over half of workers checking their email first thing in the morning and before they go to sleep.

However silicon.com's poll found around a third of techies are still refusing to log on before the traditional 9am start of the working day.

Around a quarter (26 per cent) of silicon.com readers said they open their email at 9am, leaving a more leisurely minority to clock on at 10am or 11am - six per cent and two per cent respectively.