Employees who have an input into their working patterns could be healthier, a report from research body the Cochrane Library suggests.
Self-scheduling of working hours was found to have positive impacts on blood pressure, sleep and mental health, in the study of 16,603 people.
Jake Gordon, owner of Allyearbooks.co.uk, says his company has an extremely flexible attitude towards working hours. ‘If someone doesn’t feel very productive, they don’t have to come in. Instead they can do a couple of hours in the evening. We don’t like having people just sitting there knowing they have to be at work until 5 o’clock. I think the benefits to staff is an improved work/life balance and reduced levels of stress, and for us a more productive working environment.’
Clare Bambra of the Wolfson Research Institute at Durham University says: ‘Flexible working seems to be more beneficial for health and wellbeing where the individuals control their own work patterns, rather than where employers are in control. We wouldn’t want to make any hard and fast recommendations, but these findings certainly give employers and employees something to think about.’
Last year, the government extended an earlier piece of legislation allowing parents of children under 16 to request flexible working arrangements.
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