benefit of employees setting up their own time

New research shows that people who can set up their working hours according to their personal preferences tend to fare better than others in terms of health. Blood pressure, sleep habits, as well as mental health improve considerably. All that is required for this to turn into a reality is for employees to have a saying in the way their work patterns are set up.

Scientists know that having flexible types of policies are beneficial to the employees, but they underline the fact that the exact mechanisms through which this allows people to have a better health status need to be understood in more details. Flexible working seems to be more beneficial for health and well being where the individuals control their own work patterns, rather than where employers are in control.

“We need to know more about how the health effects of flexible working are experienced by different types of workers, for instance, comparing women to men, old to young and skilled to unskilled. This is important as some forms of flexible working might only be available to employees with higher status occupations and this may serve to increase existing differences in health between social groups,” says researcher Kerry Joyce.