A flexible work life, including telecommuting and job shares, is
good for your health, researchers said on Tuesday.
They found that if people have the ability to work from home and
to compress work weeks, they are more likely to make healthier
lifestyle choices, to exercise more and to sleep better.
"Perhaps it gives people the time to fit in healthier lifestyle
into their everyday regimen or maybe it just enables people to
better manage their time," Professor Joseph G. Grzywacz, of Wake
Forest University School of Medicine, said in an interview.
While the primary driver behind the flexibility movement was to
help people, especially women, combine work and family, evidence
suggests this is clearly not only a women's issue, Grzywacz, who
reported the findings in the Journal of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine, said.
The researchers looked at Health Risk Appraisals from employees
in jobs ranging from warehouse and production workers to executives
at a large multinational pharmaceutical company.
The firm used for the study is consistently recognized by
Working Mother magazine as among the most family-friendly
employers in the United States.
"This isn't just about high-level office workers, these people
perform a wide variety of tasks within the company," Grzywacz
explained.
He said the research shows public health departments and
organizations that they could get something out of giving their
employees more flexibility.
But, he added, further research was needed to assess the
long-term benefits.
(Agencies via China Daily December 12, 2007)