The distraction factor forces us to redefine entirely our concepts of working hours and real salaries

Sir, I refer to Sarah O’Connor discussion of “bureaucratic limits on working hours” “Symbolic victories over Brussels will not help Britain’s workers”, December 27.

But, when we read in Bank of England’s BankUnderground blog that “we check our phones 150 times per day, or roughly once every 6½ mins; and that the average smartphone user spends around 2½ hours each day on his or her phone; and that we are distracted nearly 50% of the time,” then of course we have reasons to suspect that all our usual thinking about working hours, or even about real salaries, have entered into a completely new dimension and are up for major revisions.

Sir, never ever did we chat around the coffee machine that much in our days… or did you?