| Title | Flexible working hours and well-being in Finland. | | Author(s) | Kandolin I, Härmä M, Toivanen M | | Institution | Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland. | | Source | J Hum Ergol (Tokyo) 2001 Dec; 30(1-2):35-40. | | MeSH | Adult
Choice Behavior
Comparative Study
Female
Finland
Forecasting
Humans
Job Satisfaction
Leisure Activities
Male
Organizational Innovation
Personnel Staffing and Scheduling
Work Schedule Tolerance
Workload
| | Abstract | Flexibility of working hours became more prevalent in the 1990s in Finland. According to a representative survey on Finnish wage and salary earners (n = 1790) at the beginning of 2000, a great majority of male (76%) and female (65%) employees regularly worked overtime and/or had irregular working hours every month. These employees were flexible in meeting the needs of their companies/employers. Individual flexibility of working hours was far less common, only one third of male and female employees were able to regulate their working hours. A better balance between company-controlled and individual flexibility would, however, improve the well-being of employees. Employees working overtime without being allowed to regulate their working hours felt more symptoms of distress and had more conflicts in combining workplace and family roles than those who could individually determine their working hours flexibly. An investment in individually determined flexibility, for example by means of participatory planning, would improve the well-being of employees, and thus also improve the productivity of the organization. | | Language | eng | | Pub Type(s) | Journal Article
| | PubMed ID | 14564855 |
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