Nearly 60% of office workers believe that requests to work more flexibly by those without children could have a negative impact on their career prospects.

Making a request for a more flexible work/life balance could also reflect an unwillingness to work alongside others or of being too 'laid back', finds new research from business communications provider Inter-Tel.  the research questioned office-based employees about their views on their rights to flexible working.

Interestingly, the majority of respondents did not feel that flexible working was necessarily a right they should be entitled to, with 82% considering it to be a privilege.  Just 18% believed it should be one of their employee rights.  However, 90% agreed that all employees, irrespective of their domestic or parenting situation, should have the same rights to apply for a more flexible working life.  Despite this over 54% said they didn't know if all people were treated equally in their organisation when it came to making a request. 30% said that the decision was not equal within their organisation. 

Not Trusted

Trust was also perceived to be an issue and a barrier to making requests to work from home.  Indeed 40% said they did not think their employer would trust them to work at home, as they would in an office environment.

Issues to Overcome

Duncan Miller of Inter-Tel said, "The trend for home working continues to grow.  Data from the UK Office of National Statistics confirms that there are now more than two million people working from home and a further eight million opting to spend at least part of their working week outside the office.  Clearly there are still issues to be overcome and an education process needs to take place so that everyone knows what their rights are and ways in which they can improve their work life balance."