New data aggregated by business cybersecurity provider NordLayer (previously NordVPN Teams) indicates that, compared to pre-pandemic, employees globally are spending more time on their work.The figures were derived by looking into how many hours per day on average employees in a given country were connected to a business Virtual Private Network (VPN).

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Employees putting in extra hours

This September, employees in the USA and Italy have been working 2 extra hours every day, while people in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Canada, and Austria are working on average 1 hour more. This adds up to an extra month and a half of work per year. Meanwhile, working hours for people in Denmark, Belgium, and Spain are back to pre-pandemic levels.

‘Working from home leads to longer hours’

NordLayer first looked at this data in March 2020: globally, people worked 2 hours more than before the pandemic, while US workers added a 3 hours to their working days. “Our numbers show that working from home is continuing to lead us to work longer hours,” said Igne Kadaksyte, Data Analyst at NordLayer. “However, we can also observe that some countries successfully scale back on working longer hours to reach a pre-quarantine working regime and re-establish a better life-work balance.”

Work-life balance and mental wellbeing

Longer working hours and other pandemic-related stressors contribute to the general mental well-being of the working population, too.In a new study by the consultancy McKinsey & Co and LeanIn.Org, 65,000 employees were surveyed. It found 42% of women and 35% of men are feeling burned out almost always or often in 2021, a steep increase from 32% of women and 28% of men in 2020. 

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