Dive Brief:

• While consumers spend an average of about 3.1 hours checking work email, for the first time in three years, email and face-to-face talks were tied as the preferred method of communication, according to an Adobe survey of more than 1,000 white-collar workers in the U.S. Previously, email reigned. 

• People between the ages of 25 and 34 spend the most time on their email at 6.4 hours daily while users over 35 spend about 5.2 hours on their email. However, only 52% of younger generations are more inclined to have tough conversations, like quitting a job, in a face-to-face talk compared to 77% in older generations.

• The most hated emails are the ones subjected to "not sure if you saw my last email," followed my "per my last email," "per our conversation" and "any update on this?"

Dive Insight:

The desire to stay attached to work and in-the-know is prevalent. Even on vacation people are tempted to stay connected when there is more benefit in unplugging.

Communication platforms, including Slack and Teams, are building in more qualities to accommodate the modern worker. Today's communication platforms need a healthy app ecosystem to hold onto their enterprise customers because part of the attraction of email is its convenience.

The report found that email is manageable and it's easy to sort, file, filter and "get things done." Communication platforms are criticized for having informal-style of communications and pesky notifications. Complaints are handled better by email, but it still has its downfalls.

Email can lack "an elegant interaction," according to the report, which includes "frustrating, annoying phrases" that are oftentimes included in emails. The average employee has about 200 unread emails at all times and email practices dubbed wasteful keep them from doing their work, according to a Workfront report.