In a poll of 1,000 workers conducted by market researcher OnePoll, 70 per cent of employees complained about being sent irrelevant emails or being copied on emails of no interest.

More than a third (38 per cent) of respondents say they now suffer from information overload at work.

Office workers now face the choice of trawling through countless irrelevant emails or ignoring them and potentially missing out on vital messages.

Tim Barker, vice president of EMEA strategy for CRM solutions company Salesforce says: ‘The habit of “blasting out” emails to a large group of people to ensure that there is no chance of leaving anyone out of a message has created a situation where email is now becoming counter productive.’

See also: Is email communication bad for employee health and productivity?