One upside of working from home in self-isolation is having freed-up time from commuting, but this could also mean we are unintentionally spending more hours at our desks.

According to an analysis of server activity on its network, NordVPN found that the average working day has increased by three hours in the U.S. since mid-March, when more companies around the world had started to practice working from home due to the widened spread of the coronavirus.

It found that in the U.K., France, Spain and Canada, people are typically working for two more hours a day since that date.

Meanwhile, people were working an extra hour in the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Austria on average but the working day had not changed in Italy, which has so far been the worst-hit country in Europe by the virus.

Gemma Lloyd, co-CEO of global jobs network Work180, said there was a tendency to work longer hours at home as people find it harder to initially adjust and set work-life boundaries.

A person's working day is typically structured around getting to and from work, she explained, meaning that without the rush to finish work in order to catch a train home, there is no longer the same urgency.

But sitting at a desk for hours on end isn't healthy, she added, and could be detrimental to the quality of employees' work over time.

Many people will also be seeking to prove to their employer that they are still working hard, said Molly Johnson-Jones, co-founder of flexible working job platform Flexa.