by Rebecca Burn-Callander - Wednesday, 9th July 2008 - - Business comment

Could you survive without your email? Let’s presume the answer is “no”. But how many of you experience a rage, second only to The Incredible Hulk’s transformation, when email channels break down?

Having just spent three days dealing with crippling mailbox “issues” that left me virtually incommunicado, I feel I can relate to this newly spawned symptom of modern living.

It’s a common disease, too. Apparently 77 per cent of office-workers experience this phenomenon. Take a covert look around your office right now. Anyone indulging in a spot of monitor bashing? Shouting? Smashing the keys out of their QWERTYs like so many broken teeth?

Chances are, someone is.

And now that this monster has its very own appellation, business ISP Eclipse Internet has deemed it wise to run a survey to pick up on any regional variations. E-rage hotspots, if you will. Are spreadsheet jockeys in Scotland more likely to blow a gasket than those in the Cornwall?

The answer is, “Quite possibly”!

Get this, ladies and gents. The survey found that “office workers in Glasgow are twice as likely (22.2 per cent) to hit their computer compared to the national average (around ten per cent).

“They are also three times as likely to kick their computer (18.5 per cent versus a national average of 6.1 per cent).”

Angry Glaswegians! You’ve gotta love them.

London (15 per cent) and Manchester (13 per cent) also show the greatest prevalence of employees taking out their frustrations on their computers. More chilled out office workers can be found in Bristol (3.6 per cent) and Plymouth (three per cent), where instances of e-rage fall well below the national average of ten per cent.

I know this seems like trivia. A “joke” survey. Light relief.

It’s not. Spare a thought for the casualties of this terrible blight. “The real victim of e-rage is the innocent computer,” says the survey monkey. “Over 40 per cent of respondents responded with agitated ‘mouse-clicking’ while ten per cent have even resorted to hitting their computers with frustration.

"In small companies (ten-49 employees), a staggering 20 per cent of respondents have even resorted to kicking their computers in an attempt to clear the problem.”

Agitated mouse-clicking?! Now that’s rage.

Picture source