Abstract
Work organization practices, including work flexibility, are changing and can affect worker well-being. Common work flexibility types include working at home, taking time off when needed, and changing one’s work schedule. Given the changes in and the importance of work flexibility, the study assesses its prevalence and association with worker well-being in the United States. We used 2002–2018 General Social Survey—Quality of Worklife (GSS-QWL) data, descriptive statistics, and regression analyses to assess the reported likelihood of job stress, job satisfaction, healthy days, and days with activity limitations among workers reporting work flexibility. The prevalence of work flexibility remained relatively stable during the period examined. Working at home increased the likelihood of job stress by 22% and job satisfaction by 65%. Taking time off decreased the likelihood of job stress by 56% and days with activity limitations by 24%, and more than doubled the likelihood of job satisfaction. Changing one’s schedule decreased the likelihood of job stress by 20% and increased the likelihood of job satisfaction by 62%. This study used all the available data from GSS-QWL and demonstrated the ongoing importance of work flexibility for well-being.
Highlights
Work organization practices, including non-standard work arrangements, flexible schedules, and the use of technology and automation, are going through substantial changes globally [1,2,3,4]
This study examined the following research questions: (1) What are the trends of flexibility over time? (2) What are the population prevalence rates by flexibility indicators and selected demographic and socioeconomic characteristics? (3) What are the well-being outcomes of flexibility? The study used US data from General Social Survey (GSS)—Quality of Worklife (QWL) to assess the prevalence of work flexibility and its association with worker well-being
In terms of overall family interference with work, we found that working at home and changing one’s schedule increased the reported likelihood of job stress and days with activity limitations and decreased the reported likelihood of job satisfaction and healthy days
Summary
Work organization practices, including non-standard work arrangements, flexible schedules, and the use of technology and automation, are going through substantial changes globally [1,2,3,4]. The gap in women’s labor force participation increased, but it is not clear yet if the gap will persist [8]. These trends, combined with technological advancements that accommodate rapid reductions in certain types of economic transaction costs such as labor productivity monitoring costs, have altered organizational practices, including work flexibility [2,9]. The three most common types of flexibility available to US workers are the ability to: change work location; take time off; and change their work hours [10,11,12,13,14,15]
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