Abuse of company email policies is hampering help desk operations. A survey of UK IT managers commissioned by service management software vendor Touchpaper found that almost 50% of respondents considered misuse of personal email as the biggest headache they face.

According to the survey, employees in the government sector are the worst offenders. Some 70% of IT managers working in government report that email abuse is the most frequent misdemeanour they encounter. This suggests that the private sector is more in control of system abuse and quicker to deal with problems as they arise, says Touchpaper.

Touchpaper's research also shows that email abuse is a greater problem for companies with larger help desks – where an organisation's support team consists of only one person, less than 30% of IT managers cite misuse of personal email as a problem, whereas 47% of IT managers at larger operations say this is the case.