By now, most of the UK (and the world) is working from home to limit the spread of coronavirus, following government advice published late last week.
While there are various struggles to remote working – isolation and weak broadband to name a few – it looks like productivity isn’t one of them.
VPN service provider NordVPN Teams released data this week showing that people are working a longer day when at home.
In the case of the UK, France, Spain and Canada, the working day has increased by an average of two hours.
Working days in Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium have extended by an hour, while Italy has remained fixed at eight hours.
The US has seen working days extend by three hours, a 40 per cent increase compared to behaviours before March 11.
People are also starting work earlier than usual, perhaps owing to the fact that they no longer need to use the time to commute to work.
The data also shows a large spike in business VPN usage due to the need for cloud-based security. Usage increased by over 200 per cent in Canada, Austria and the Netherlands.
Daniel Markuson, a digital privacy expert at NordVPN Teams, commented:
“The sharp increase seen by NordVPN Teams once again shows how unprepared companies are for such situations. According to Gartner, large corporations with 10,000 people or more can accommodate only 10 per cent of their employees to work from home.”
For tips on working from home, see our Smart Traveller feature.
