Employees are not only working from home, they are also ‘homing from work’, with 93 per cent of workers taking care of personal errands and family needs during office hours, a new study in North America has found.

Nearly half of those surveyed left their office during the day to take care of personal errands, including going to the bank, picking up a gift, shipping a package, getting a manicure or pedicure and picking or dropping off dry cleaning, the study by digital media firm Captivate Network revealed.

Nearly 70 per cent employees use their work computers for personal online activities, including taking care of banking and insurance needs, scheduling vacations, shopping, finding a new recipe and searching for a new job.

The study was based on the surveys of 4,000 white-collar workers across North America, BusinessNewsDaily has reported.

In the last two years, the number of employees in US who are running errands during the day has increased by 31 per cent.

The research also found an 11 per cent increase since 2011 in the number of workers who report having a healthy work-life balance, despite a 30 per cent jump in the number of employees working more than nine hours a day.

“People seem to be getting more comfortable with putting in longer hours,” said Scott Marden, research director at Captivate Network.

“Part of that appears to come from the growing ability to take care of personal business during the workday,” Marden said.

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