THE TYPICAL IRISH working day now begins around 8am and ends at 8pm, according to a survey of working patterns.

The survey shows the rise of remote access and networking technology means employees increasingly feel expected to log in outside traditional working hours.

The average employee puts in more than 40 minutes work before arriving at the office.

And Irish people work later than their counterparts in Germany, France, Britain or the US – checking their work emails for the last time at 8.02pm on average.

Bosses in Ireland said they would feel comfortable calling an employee about a work issue as late as 7.30pm – the latest of the five countries surveyed.

However, the poll carried out by cloud computing firm Mozy found that we also start work later, with Irish people arriving at the office at 8.39am on average. The average for all five countries was 8.18am.

Overall, men tend to clock on earlier than women. Forty per cent of men surveyed said they checked their emails before 7.30am, compared to 25 per cent of women.

The survey covered 1000 managers and employees in Ireland, Germany, France, the UK and the US.