Professor of Occupational Health Psychology Gail Kinman featured in the recently published Workingmums.co.uk: Future of Work Report [PDF], where she argued that employers needs to recognise the risks that long working hours can have on their employees’ wellbeing.

“Working conditions have become more challenging for many – we are working at an increasingly relentless pace and it is becoming harder to maintain a healthy work-life balance,” said Prof Kinman.

“There is overwhelming evidence that the long-hours culture is not sustainable and people who put more hours are typically less, rather than more, productive.”

Prof Kinman pointed out that although advances in technology mean that flexible working is now an option for many more people, it is only beneficial if people are given control and choice over their working patterns and if boundaries between work and personal life are respected.

“People may be tempted to put in extra hours in order to compensate for being ‘allowed’ to work remotely and to try to gain the trust of their manager,” said Prof Kinman, who is also Director of the University’s Research Centre for Applied Psychology based at the Luton campus.

“There is also evidence that flexible workers are stigmatised by women as well as men and people who request to work flexibly for caring reasons may be seen as less committed and less worthy of promotion.

“Steps must be taken to reduce this stigma, offer more creative flexible working options and provide employees with guidance on how to work flexibly in a healthy and sustainable way.”

The Future of Work report [PDF] is a collection of articles by some of the leading experts in diversity and flexible working on issues such as childcare, flexible or smart working and family support – outlining some of the main challenges for the future.