Flexible working hours lead to stress and frequent illnesses.

Working from home can do more harm than good, because employees never switch from work to leisure. A flexible schedule makes employees always in touch, which is very difficult psychologically.

Out-of-office or part-time jobs keep stress hormones at a constant level. A flexible schedule increases the risk that an employee will work in poor conditions, creates discontent among colleagues and blurs the boundaries between work and family life, which leads to stress.



The desire of British companies to improve the condition of their employees through remote work, flexible working hours, part-time work, unpaid parental leave, disabling of non-working hours for email accounts, shorter working hours and other experiments has led to risks of increased employee stress. The line between work and personal life has become thinner, people are constantly checking their mail, calling for work after hours. As soon as the employee is distracted by the performance of any work task, the level of stress rises.

Experts say that if you constantly think about work, worry about it, your life systems do not rest, and the level of stress hormones never drops to a basic level - and you cannot recover correctly. You can sleep, but you are not sleeping correctly, so the efficiency of your immune system is reduced, leading to illness. According to surveys, in such situations, people are looking for quick ways to relax, drink alcohol or eat their favorite food. There is no time left for hobbies, physical activity and healthy eating due to work.

President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Simon Wessel, says: “We don’t know the reasons, but we already have evidence of a connection between the psychological circumstances at work of heart disease.”

One of the problems is the impact of new technologies that make remote work possible. A Ofcom study in the summer of 2015 found that adults spend on average more time using modern technology than sleeping. Gadgets allow you to work more intensively, spend more time and effort on business tasks, and simultaneously work on several projects. A study by Professor Gail Kinman showed that the number of people working during the illness is growing. This phenomenon is called "presenteeism" (presenteeism).

The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, the largest professional organization for HR and training and development specialists based in the UK, continues to defend a flexible work schedule, but recognizes that this practice only works if the employee has a choice. The scientific director of the organization, Ksenia Zheltoukhova, notes the second important factor - proper management.

Initiatives of employers designed to maintain a balance between personal life and the work of subordinates do not save working married couples from a lack of time for home obligations and caring for each other. More than half of UK residents are satisfied with the balance between work and their own time, but more than a quarter of those surveyed by the National Statistical Office are not satisfied with it. The UK Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that for every one hundred workers, there are 1.4 diggers who have experienced work-related stress, depression, or anxiety. Some employers say that 97% of their employees are struggling for a balance between work and life. This leads to tension in the UK personnel system, coupled with job instability.