At work as in their personal lives, employees must do multiple tasks. Flexible work schedule is one form of support that some organizations offer to employees so they can better deal with the demands of both areas of their lives. But are flexible work schedule really beneficial?
Legend: Recommendation of our expert
Expert advisor:
- Marie-Hélène GILBERT, assistant professor, Management, Université Laval
Authors:
- France ST-HILAIRE, associate professor, Human Resource Management, Université de Sherbrooke Maude VILLENEUVE, research professional, Université de Sherbrooke
Stéphanie BÉRUBÉ, research professional, Université de Sherbrooke
Rébecca LEFEBVRE, research professional, Université de Sherbrooke
Michel PÉRUSSE, adjunct professor, Université de Sherbrooke
This initiative was made possible through a collaboration with the Université de Sherbrooke.
We did an interpretation of the Spieler and colleagues study published in 2017, whose objective was to better understand the influence of flexible work schedule on employees’ emotional well-being. The researchers studied two processes to meet the goal of better understanding the links between flexible work schedule and employees’ emotional well-being.
- Permeability of boundaries between work and personal life =
degree of encroachment of personal life on work and vice versa - Achieving goals =
number of tasks done for work or personal life
The researchers sought to determine how flexible work schedule influence the permeability of boundaries between work and employees’ personal life as well as their level of emotional well-being. They also sought to discover the role of employees’ attaining of their goals in this relationship.
What do you mean by : Flexible work schedule?
Flexible work schedule refers to the decision latitude that employees use to manage their work schedule themselves. This can vary from a broad form to a more limited form.
Broad form
- The employee chooses the time they arrive and the time they leave, depending on their needs.
- The manager allows the employee to arrive and leave within a set time slot (e.g., between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m.).
Limited form
- The employee chooses their breaks.
- The manager allows the employee to take their break based on a set time slot (e.g., from 10:00 to 10:15 a.m.).
Emotional well-being
We talk about employees’ emotional well-being when their positive states (e.g., relaxed, calm or exhilarated) outweigh their negative states (e.g., nervous, angry or depressed).
Method
The article presents the results of two studies.
Study 1
- 150 employees
- 75% were women
- age: 40 years
- Germany
- Similar jobs within the same organization in the financial industry
- Use of the same flexible work schedule policy
Study 2
- 608 employees
- 63% were women
- age: 44 years
- Germany
- Various office jobs in different business sectors
- Use of different flexible work schedule policies
For two consecutive workweeks, employees had to complete a daily questionnaire that allowed researchers to analyze the link between flexible work schedule and employees’ emotional well-being.
Because studies must always be interpreted with caution Only employees’ perceptions were used to measure the permeability of their boundaries between work and personal life, their level of emotional well-‐ being and the attaining of their goals. The researchers suggest incorporating into future studies the perception of individuals involved (spouse, manager) as well as more objective measures (e.g., physiological measures, such as heart rates). In addition, researchers pointed out that it would be interesting to look into environmental practices of flexible schedules (teleworking) to measure the benefits. More variety in business sectors as well as in the culture of participants would also allow a greater generalization of results.
What do the results of the study tell us?
ARGUMENTS FOR FLEXIBLE WORK SCHEDULE
A. Boundary permeability and level of well-being
- to employees’ work tasks encroaching less on those of their personal life;
- to a higher level of well-being experienced the same evening.
Interpretation:
Flexible work hours allowed employees to carry out a greater number of personal tasks compared to work-related tasks.
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