Roll out the Yuletide log-on
Employees will be checking emails and working from home over extended Christmas break
It won't be the Queen's speech that occupies office workers' time after Christmas Day lunch this year, but checking email.
According to a survey by ISP Demon, office staff plan to work at least 10 hours over the holiday period and one in six will be logging on from home even on Christmas Day.
"I've become addicted to reading and sending work emails from my iPhone and Christmas Day will be no different," Ben Roberts, a 28-year-old office worker from London, told the survey team. "I expect others in my office will do the same so I don't want to be the one out of the loop."
The extended break from 25 December to 4 January, boosted by three extra public holidays caused by Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day all falling on weekend days, means that many senior managers cannot afford to be out of touch with their businesses for so long a period of time.
"I'll have to keep abreast of things and take calls over the festive period and that will include Christmas Day itself," said company director David Thomas.
"I will be checking emails from home and accessing my office computer remotely but the alternative would be to drive to work so it should actually save me time," added the father of two.
The vast majority (95 per cent) of respondents working from home will be sending and receiving work emails and over two-thirds (68 per cent) will be accessing documents on the corporate network through a VPN or similar.
A small number (four per cent) admitted they will be working, on average, for longer than normal - over eight hours each time.
Fourteen per cent of respondents said that the only reason they wouldn't be working from home on Christmas Day was because they did not have the technology available.