Much time and effort has been dedicated to researching the mental health benefits of flexible work environments, but can the ability to leave work early to watch your son’s soccer game, or arrive at the office a bit later in the morning in order to see to some personal errands, have broader physical health benefits beyond making you feel a bit less frazzled? According to new research published in the Cochrane Library’s Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, it seems so. In a review of 10 previous studies examining the health implications of flexible work conditions for more than 16,000 people, researchers from the U.K.’s Durham University and University of Newcastle, as well as the University of Montreal, found that flexible work schedules—when employees can shift their starting times, for example—were associated with improvements in blood pressure, sleep and overall mental health. Specifically, the review showed that more flexibility in work schedules was associated with improvements in alertness, sleep quality, tiredness, heart rate and other primary health outcomes, as well as benefits to secondary health outcomes, such as perceived social support in the workplace and sense of community. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, in all of the studies included in the review, researchers found no evidence for negative effects of more flexible work schedules.
