One in five need a full day to catch

Australian workers returning from a week or more of leave face an average backlog of 165 unread or unaddressed emails, according to research commissioned by MacroView and conducted by consumer research agency Antenna.

The survey found one in four workers delete emails without properly reading them after leave. It also found 34% spend half a day or more getting their inbox back under control, including one in five who need a full day or longer. Another 2% said they never fully caught up.

Workers also use other shortcuts to handle the rush. About 31% check or work through emails while on leave to avoid a backlog, 26% use personal time after returning to catch up, 24% ignore older emails and focus only on recent ones, and 23% mark emails as read without dealing with them.

Workers use shortcuts to clear inboxes

The research found inbox pressure goes beyond time lost after a break. More than one in five workers, or 22%, said they felt anxious or overwhelmed by the number of emails waiting for them when they came back.

Productivity specialist Donna McGeorge said the inbox was becoming “a psychological re-entry barrier after leave” and was unlikely to ease while most Australian organisations still relied on email.

She said the issue starts before people return to work. The findings show some workers are already reading messages during leave, which cuts into the chance to properly switch off.

McGeorge said, “Workers are not just returning to work; they are returning to a queue of decisions, requests and unresolved tasks that can quickly feel unmanageable.”

MacroView chief executive Colin Titmuss warned the problem could affect more than individual productivity. He said important messages may be missed when information stays in personal inboxes or is deleted, ignored or hard to find.

That creates wider risks for organisations, especially when workers skip older emails or clear messages without acting on them. As a result, information can be lost from view even when it was sent to the right person.

Titmuss said, “When important information is stuck in personal inboxes, deleted, ignored or hard to find, it creates wider business consequences.”