Survey: Flexible Jobs Improve Love Life, Health, Happiness

Last year, we conducted a survey to find out if flexible jobs can improve people’s relationships, health, and happiness, and we got some really interesting results. With Valentine’s Day on our minds, we decided to conduct another survey and received a huge response–more than any other FlexJobs survey in the past. It turns out that our job seekers are very interested in talking about how flexible jobs improve their love lives, health, and happiness.

According to the results from over 2,000 responses, flexible work arrangements can positively affect people’s personal health, as well as improve their romantic relationships.

Read on to see the results of our survey. And in a related post, we’re detailing the 50 Shades of Work Flexibility for Valentine’s Day! The list details 50 different ways flexible work options make it easier to strengthen and support our relationships. Be sure to check it out!

How Flexible Jobs Improve Love Life, Health, Happiness

Most people understand that flexible work offers perks like better work-life balance, eliminated commuting time, and cost savings for professionals and employers. But this survey shows that there are smaller, but still incredibly significant, benefits to working a flexible job. For our intents and purposes, a “flexible job” is defined as a job that has a telecommuting, flexible schedule, freelance, or part-time component.

How Flexible Jobs Improve Relationships–Romantic and Otherwise

84 percent thought that having a job with work flexibility would help them be a more attentive spouse/partner/significant other
89 percent said it would create more time to spend with family or friends
48 percent said it would benefit their romantic relationship, and another 29% were hopeful it would
49 percent thought it would increase time available for dates/date nights
42 percent said it would improve their sex life, and another 30% were optimistic it would

How Flexible Jobs Improve Health and Happiness

Happier, healthier people typically result in happier, more productive employees, so ultimately it benefits the workplace and employers’ bottom lines as well.

99 percent reported that a flexible job would make them a happier person in general
91 percent thought a flexible job would help them take better care of themselves
90 percent believed it would decrease their levels of stress
61 percent thought it would increase the frequency they exercised

Here’s the demographic breakdown of respondents to our survey: Age: 79% between 30-59 years old; 9% between 20-29 years old; 12% 60 and older. Relationship status: Not currently in a relationship (24%), Dating (3%), Serious/Engaged (15%), Married (58%). Children: 40% have children 18 and under, 22% have children over than 18 and 38% do not have children.

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