Forty percent of users check emails while on holiday and 38pc while off sick. Another survey by Fujitsu Siemens found nearly half of men and a third of women checked office emails over the festive period.

It has given rise to talk about 'email addiction'. Statistics are trotted out about growing email volumes. Data is used to suggest "three-quarters of us find email addictive" or "one in five people is email dependent".

Predictably enough, 'experts' are quick to talk about the health risks of emails. According to one extraordinary piece of research, "addiction to email is doubly worrying because such technology depletes cognitive abilities more rapidly than drugs. Email users suffered a 10pc drop in IQ scores, more than twice the fall recorded by marijuana users."

Now people are offering treatment for this 'addiction' and proclaiming that email dependent people should be regarded in the same way as alcoholics and drug addicts. I remain very sceptical. Like 'epidemic', 'miracle' and 'tragedy', the word 'addiction' is over-used by commentators who are often lazy, ill-informed or sensationalist.

After all, "email is now far more than just a communications tool," according to Lindsey Armstrong, senior vice president at Symantec. "Individuals use it to manage their diaries and contacts, delegate actions and even treat it as a formal record of events."

That final phrase is my big worry. Internal emails play a growing role in today's blame culture. "Didn't you see the email I sent you last week?" ask people who try to cover their backs by copying multiple recipients in on their emails. "It was all in there."

Article by David Sumner Smith MBA for the Telegraph Business Club http://www.telegraphbusinessclub.co.uk/