Work from home spikes on US holidays

December 4, 2020. NordVPN Teams Analytics previously observed that employees have been working longer hours in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the global increase in remote work. On top of that, Americans have been putting in extra work even on national holidays.

US employees are spending 3 hours longer on business VPNs per day than before the lockdown. Additionally, NordVPN Teams have observed a 42% and 70% increase in business VPN server load on Thanksgiving and Veteran’s Day respectively, compared to the business VPN server load on average weekends. This suggests that people are spending their family time working.

“We can also see employees working on weekends, but it’s considerably less, accounting for only 19%, compared to the business VPN server load on an average working day,” Roberta Presaite, Data Analyst for NordVPN Teams, said in a statement.

The data has also revealed that the average workweek in the US has increased by around 40% since April, with extra 15 hours on the job, making it the largest increase globally. “We still see no significant drop in the usage of business VPNs during lunch time, which might suggest that lunch breaks have become shorter,” says Presaite.

The use of business VPNs spiked in April, along with a reported increase in use of home networks and devices, many of which may not have proper protection for secure remote work, NordVPN Teams said. This is becoming critical, as some companies plan to have employees continue to work remotely more regularly, even after the pandemic ends. A recent Gartner survey found that more than 80% of company leaders plan to have their staff work remotely at least part-time.

Spending on cloud security is expected to jump by 33% this year, making it a $585 million market, according to market analyst Gartner.

NordVPN Teams server load on Veteran’s Day (11.11)

NordVPN Teams server load on Thanksgiving (26.11)