Over a third of people who work in the UK admitted that they either worked from home or checked their work emails from home over the 2009 Christmas holiday period.

Some 16 million people are thought to have spent time working from home over Christmas and the progression of the UK’s broadband network facilitated this, according to a report by TalkTalk.

One in ten people said they spent over ten hours working from home over Christmas, while most spent around 3 hours working from home despite the fact that they were on an official holiday.

However, many people worked from home over Christmas instead of going into the office. Fast broadband helps firms give staff the option to work from home when they need to. Many workers prefer to be home-based during the Christmas period as their children may be on holiday or they may need to stay at home because of other personal commitments or bad weather problems.

This added flexibility is beneficial to staff and employers alike as it gives workers more control over their working lives and cuts the number of sick days taken by employees.