Over the past two years, WFH (aka working from home) has become the new norm. Sitting in your pj's at your kitchen table (or from your bed perhaps?) has been a blessing and a curse, enabling some to enjoy more time with family and others to struggle with work/life balance.

For others, working remotely allowed them to do other things during work hours.

New research reveals that over 7.4 million (14%) Brits have masturbated during company time, bringing new meaning to stress relief.

The 2,000 workers who took part in the survey admitted to masturbating during work hours approximately 2-3 times every week, with men three times more likely to do so than women.

With an average of 36 working minutes spent masturbating every time, people are essentially getting paid to pleasure themselves as opposed to working down their to-do list.

The research, conducted by Chemist4U is based on a UK salary of £25,300, but as the survey further reveals, it's the higher earners that pocket between £35-45k annually who are most likely to pleasure themselves during work hours, with almost a third of this group confessing to some work time self-love.

As well as salary, age also played a noticeable part in the research with 27% of people who admitted to masturbating, fell within the 25-34-year-old bracket. Dropping down to 18% of 35-44-year-olds and 15% of 45-54-year-olds.

The reason for this need to masturbate during the day you may ask? Those surveyed admitted it helped with more than just 'work stress'; 24% of people said masturbating enhances mood, 19% said it helps increase concentration, and 20% said it's because they simply feel comfortable and unashamed to masturbate during work hours.

James O'Loan, Pharmacist and CEO at Chemist4U says: "This comes as no surprise given the fact that there are many surprising health benefits of orgasms," O'Loan said. "Your brain releases Oxytocin when having an orgasm, which helps the body to relax by lowering your blood pressure and your cortisol levels, showing there is some science behind why a third of people said masturbating during work hours helps relieve stress."

The new data shows that 22% of men masturbate during working hours compared to a small 7% of women. O'Loan has a few theories as to why this could be. "One reason could be that for a long time, there has been a social stigma around female masturbation, but in recent years there have been great efforts to improve this with lots of sex-positive movements," he said.

"This stigma could be traced back to sex education in schools, while boys learn about the pleasures of sex, girls are often educated about the dangers and the negative aspects of menstruation and fertility," he adds.

Another factor O'Loan suggests is that men are struggling to find ways to deal with their stress and have to resort to a physical release.