Travel | Should you pay staff to check their emails on their commute?

A UK university has argued that time spent checking and answering work emails during commutes should count as work – the BBC reports.

A study from the University of the West of England suggests that wider access to wi-fi on trains and the spread of smart phones has extended the working day, with 54% of commuters using the train's wi-fi to send work emails.

They found those on the way in were likely to be catching up on emails sent before their start time, and on the way home they were finishing up tasks that were not completed during the day.

This suggests that, in this case at least, technology is not giving people more flexibility over working, but instead stretching out the working day.