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Somebody needs to get with reality. Folks, answering 50 e-mails a day is not a lot.

I can hear your response now …

Easy for you to say, Sims, you get work-related e-mails from some of the brightest, funniest, most interesting people on the planet to work with there at TMC (News - Alert). You wouldn't believe the cretins I have to put up with around here."

Okay, point taken. But still. Fifty e-mails? We clear off 40 when we turn our computer on in the morning.

According to a Harris Interactive (News - Alert) poll reported in USA Today, 50 is "the breaking point for employees' daily allowance of e-mail. Anything more sets their heads spinning, based on the results of more than 2,000 American adults in early June."

Harris found that one in five people say "50 work-related e-mail messages per day is the magic number before they feel swamped. The effect is even more pronounced for smartphone users – 37 percent feel ‘overwhelmed’ by 50 or more work e-mail,” says Jonathan McCormick, COO of Intermedia (News - Alert), a Web-based e-mail provider that sponsored the survey.

Puh-leeze, people. Can't we find a way to answer 50 e-mails without breaking out in hives?

Evidently small-business users want to stay that way: Fully 94 percent of small-business employees said 50 e-mails is their limit, USA Today reported. That means only six percent of small business employees have learned how to answer five e-mails, play Bejeweled, answer five more, drink coffee, answer five more, make a couple work-related calls, answer five more and work for 20 minutes.

Moreover, gender makes no difference, the study found, noting that "men and women are equally stressed – 94 percent of men and 95 percent of women cited the number 50."

USA Today says that Intermedia advises e-mail users to "organize and prioritize their digital correspondence, and read and respond to incoming messages that require quick responses."

I don't know. When that 51st e-mail drops in the box, many of us may not be in any condition to organize or prioritize anything.