Office workers are being urged to ignore business calls on their mobile phones and emails over the Christmas break, as research shows the damage to mental health caused by the intrusion of work into family time, the Sydney Morning Herald reports today.

A Lifeline study of 8000 workers found 42 per cent of people slept with their mobile phone within arm's reach.

However, the biggest study undertaken in Australia on the impact of mobile phones on work/life balance has found the common belief that mobiles make life more stressful is wrong.

Three academics studied the way that 1083 people used their mobile phones and found that those using them most felt least pressed for time.

In a paper in the journal Work, Employment and Society by the British Sociological Association and Sage, the researchers say that mobile phone use gave people a greater flexibility about schedules.

The study was carried out by Professor Michael Bittman and Judith Brown of the University of New England, Australia, and Professor Judy Wajcman, of the London School of Economics. They got 1,083 people living in Australia to complete a questionnaire and a log of their phone activity using the data on their SIM cards.

In their paper the researchers found that those who used the phones most frequently during both work and leisure time were no more stressed than infrequent users. They found that only almost none of those studied used their mobile phones for work purposes during their leisure time.

This was despite the fact that, as the researchers say, “in principle, a person with a mobile phone is always available. Perpetual contact implies that there is in principle less ‘dead time’; which cannot be used for contacting people or being contacted by them. It is argued that mobiles extend work beyond the workplace, into the places and times normally reserved for families and leisure.”

However, their new research contradicts this. “The discovery that those making heavy use of their mobile phones do not experience themselves as more ‘rushed or pressed for time’ is intriguing.

“While the elimination of ‘dead time’ might sound like an escalation of the pace of events, making calls during these times might also relieve stress.”

Mobile phones could allow us to organise our days better by allowing us to rearrange meetings at short notice, so giving us more time, the researchers say.

“Phoning ahead relaxes the formerly inflexible scheduling of pre-arranged rendezvous. It seems plausible that this new flexibility of arrangements could contribute to a sense of being less rushed or pressed for time.

“The extra flexibility afforded by mobile communications may be more than sufficient to offset any sense of being harried arising from the increased possibility of being contacted.”

The counselling service Lifeline and Unions NSW said their research highlighted why Christmas should be a time for workers - and management - to switch off as they headed off for holidays.

The chief executive of Lifeline, Dawn O'Neil, conceded this would be difficult for most people to do. ''There's a tendency for people in management to feel like they have to be available 24/7,'' she said.

''[Managers should] think about when they absolutely have to be contacted. It comes down to planning and thinking it through. It has become too easy to say, 'Call me on the mobile if there is a problem.' It interrupts special family time and in modern times, family time has become a rare privilege.''

A separate Lifeline survey has found work-related stress was the leading cause of stress for 73 per cent of people, and most of this was caused by work impinging on family time.

Ms O'Neil said although technology allowed people to stay in touch with work continuously, interruptions over the Christmas break ''should be avoided if at all possible''.

''Christmas is one of the few sacred times where we have extended periods of time to have a relaxed lunch or long breakfast and where all the family are together in one place,'' she said.

The secretary of Unions NSW, Mark Lennon, said it wasn't just managers, but all workers who were chained to the workplace by the BlackBerry.

''With the march of technology it is hard to draw a line between work and leisure time. You have to make that break and shut down the technology. It's simple,'' said Mr Lennon.

He said he was shocked at the finding that almost half of workers slept with the phone nearby.

www.lifeline.org.au or 131114

The academic study was part of an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant connecting researchers and the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA), the peak industry body for the mobile telecommunications industry – examined the social impact of mobile technologies at home and work. It collected nationally representative data between March and May in 2007 from a sample of 1358 individuals from 845 on-line households.