Studies show it has become more common for employees to apply for mortgages and take care of other personal business during regular office hours.

Technology has given people an opportunity to work at their own convenience. People take advantage of this when they are watching TV shows, listening to podcasts, and now applying for mortgages. It has been confirmed that people on MortgageMarvel.com apply for mortgages 24/7, especially during work hours, according to the latest analysis by Harris Interactive.

A press release revealed that out of the 650,000 Mortgage Marvel applications that come in on weekdays, approximately 60 percent of them are submitted between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

“You have to assume that most people applying for a mortgage are employed, so they’re obviously spending a bit of their workday on their mortgage application,” Rick Allen, chief operating officer of Mortgage Marvel, said about this data in a recent press release. “In fairness though, many applications come in over the lunch hour, and it’s also likely that people are doing regular work outside what we traditionally consider to be normal hours. Technology has given us more flexibility in all aspects of our lives.”

Here are some other interesting statistics the study reported:

• Only 15 percent of applications come in on a Saturday or Sunday
• 62 percent of people who apply for mortgages online complete their application in only one session.
• The online process takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.

One of the reasons why employees apply for mortgages and attend to personal business during work hours is because they are able to contact teachers, doctors’ offices or banks, which are not usually available after 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. However, even though they take some personal time during work, this does not mean they are considered “lazy.” Kelly Walsh, a human resources consultant and owner of 1 Smart Life, believes that employees who take care of personal business during the work day are more likely to do extra work after business hours.

“Employers who give their people a little time to take care of a few personal things during the work day enjoy increased loyalty from their team and usually get more than they give,” she said. “Those employees will be the ones answering emails from home in the evening and producing more at work because they aren’t distracted and stressed.”