Workers’ rights

Being allowed to dictate your own schedule is obviously appealing for employees too. Rona Moore, 39, a legal cashier at a London law firm, decided two years ago to retrain as a florist. Initially, she believed she would have to quit her well-paid job to do so, but she asked to drop down to four days a week and her firm immediately agreed. Moore explains, “It was only as a last resort that I approached my boss, who was accommodating. They took the view that helping their staff made a more productive workforce.”

Research by Price Waterhouse Cooper shows that flexible work is actually the benefit most valued by employees, above even pay and bonuses (47% compared with 19%). Moore certainly believes that to be the case. “It has made me appreciate them a lot more, and I find I’m far more productive on the four days I’m in the office, as I am happier and more fulfilled,” she says.

There is another very good reason for working from home – the proximity to your bed. Recent research shows that the most beneficial thing at lunchtime would be a sandwich and a snooze, as a 90-minute nap in the middle of the day prepares the brain to remember things, just like rebooting a computer. “Sleep is not just for the body. It’s very much for the brain,” says Matthew Walker, assistant professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In his study, Walker divided 39 adults into two groups. Participants took part in one memory exercise at noon, then another memory exercise at 6pm, after half had napped for 100 minutes. Those who slept performed 10% better on the tests.

So we’d be happier, less stressed and more fulfilled if we worked more flexibly. That’s a big tick from the female workforce. And a 2010 report by UK think tank the New Economics Foundation, which proposed a 21-hour working week, argued shorter working hours would benefit the planet too: “It could help to tackle a range of urgent and closely related problems: overwork, unemployment, overconsumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, and the lack of time to live sustainably.” A 2008 report suggested that workspace for each employee in the UK generated the equivalent of two tonnes of carbon emissions each year. More employees working from home would improve commuter costs and travel conditions – an experiment being carried out next summer, when Londoners have been told they should change their working patterns during the Olympics to ease the transport burden, will prove enlightening.

Some visitors to the Olympics will inevitably be baffled by our working hours regardless. Britain is 20th on the list of the world’s hardest-working countries, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. South Korea topped the list – the average employee works 2,357 hours per year, or six-and-a-half hours every single day of their life. Japanese workers also put in extremely long hours – one government survey found that nearly 90% didn’t even know what the term “work/life balance” meant, and there is even a specific word for death by overwork, “karoshi”. The Dutch, who came bottom of the OECD’s list, are the polar opposite – they work an average 1,391 hours per year and everyone has the right to determine their own hours. Tellingly, a Gallup World Poll survey declared it the “happiest country in the world” in 2010.

So what does the office of the next decade look like? It turns out, quite a lot like your own front room. A survey by Regus found that 60% of businesses believe that flexible work, whether that’s office hours or location, is more cost efficient (a desk for a single employee in London costs nearly £12,000 per year), and there is no better argument for a world that’s still recession-hit. Now we can have our office at our fingertips, no matter where we are, there is no reason that work can’t come virtually to us. As it makes us not only happier but healthier too, there is no reason not to ditch the nine to five. The future is looking flexible.

What's your view? Tweet us your thoughts on @StylistMagazine.

Working 9 To 5 was written by Stylist reader Eve Hankins, a merchandise planner for Burberry (second top image, left). The eye-catching illustrations for the feature were created by reader Karolin Schnoor, a graphic designer (second top image, right).

9 to 5 (not a way to make a living)