A new report from Cloudbrink, a leader in high-performance secure connectivity, reveals that work-from-anywhere (WFA) employees are starting earlier and logging off later than the typical eight-hour workday. In the report, “2025 Trends in Hybrid Work Report: The Facts Behind Balancing Security and Performance” usage data shows heavy transfer of data on Fridays, an indication that ‘work from anywhere’ employees actually put in longer hours than their ‘9 to 5’ counterparts — with heavy usage starting at 7:00 am and continuing to 7:00 pm. Despite employer fears about worker focus, the report concludes that employees are working quite a bit outside the office, but could be even more productive if technical challenges could be reduced. The report points to the impact on network performance by security measures such as VPNs and traditional ZTNA approaches as an issue impacting hybrid work.
“Employers shouldn’t worry that remote workers are slacking off. It’s simply not true. Our data shows they actually work longer hours,” said Prakash Mana, CEO of Cloudbrink. “What’s really impacting productivity is when users waste hours trying to get work done because of network connectivity issues caused by VPNs and other outdated security. There’s no question security is a requirement, but it doesn’t have to slow down productivity outside the office.”
Remote Work is Now Just Work
Cloudbrink analyzed its usage data pulled from thousands of users for more detail into how and when these workers are logging in when using Cloudbrink’s Personal SASE service. Perhaps not surprisingly, the heaviest work-from-anywhere day is Friday. In addition to weekdays, data transfer trends suggest many workers are also logging in on Saturdays and Sundays.
According to a survey also commissioned for the report, more than half of all respondents say 40 percent or more of their employees work remotely at least one day each week. These workers need to securely connect to company resources yet often face a number of challenges in getting their work done. According to survey respondents, the number one challenge for remote workers is the inability to maintain a steady connection. This is followed by poor quality audio and video, hindering important conference calls that keep teams connected. Other top challenges include slow performance for file transfer, and the inability to access apps and systems. Each of these issues impacts more than 45 percent of remote workers according to the survey.
Security vs Performance
A primary cause of remote access challenges is the need to keep connections secure. Balancing security with access is a challenge for every employer with remote workers. Survey results say 70 percent of companies believe that their security negatively impacts performance and user experience. However, findings suggest professionals don’t understand the full impact or how to fix it.
The hidden culprit: Packet Loss
Diving more deeply into the issue, the report highlights one technical culprit of poor performance that is often overlooked: packet loss. Legacy and even some modern security approaches add latency which combined with packet loss can reduce a 100Mbps or 1Gbps connection to just a few Mbps. According to the report, “Adding just 0.5% packet loss on top of just 10 milliseconds of latency can cause throughput to plummet by 90%.” According to Cloudbrink, 60 percent of end users struggle with packet loss above 0.5 percent, enough to greatly exacerbate the impact of normal network latency.
Mana added, “Unfortunately you can’t solve all connectivity issues with a bigger pipe. Frustrated workers paying for high-speed connections still experience maddening upload speeds that get slower instead of faster. Packet loss is the ten-ton gorilla hiding in the shadows, and it’s a more prevalent problem than most people think.”
The Cloudbrink report is based on a combination of real usage data from millions of sessions a day from hybrid workers and a survey of 251 IT/network (57.8%) and cybersecurity (42.2%) professionals from a broad range of industry sectors. More than half of all participants in the survey work at companies with 5,000 employees or more. For more detail or to download a copy of the report go to: https://cloudbrink.com/trends-in-work-from-anywhere/
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