Flexible working and wellbeing? We already know how that all works

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. Woody Allen’s wise observation could have been made for this year. But it’s not just true for plans that go awry, but also those that go right in unexpected ways.  For example, what better time to publish a book about the links between flexible working and wellbeing than in April 2020 as large swathes of the population were adjusting to completely remote work, many of them for the first time?

This was the position that two of Europe’s most eminent experts on workplace issues, Sir Cary Cooper and Dr Sarah Norgate found themselves in with the publication of their new book Flexible Work: Designing our Healthier Future Lives earlier this year. It explores the links between flexible working and the well established body of research that can inform current debates about the changing world of work.

The authors’ credentials speak for themselves. Dr Sarah H. Norgate was formerly a Reader in Applied Developmental Psychology at the University of Salford, UK. Since completing her PhD at the University of Warwick, UK, she has widely published in both academic and practitioner journals.

Sir Cary L. Cooper is the 50th Anniversary Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at the ALLIANCE Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK, President of the CIPD and Co-Chair of the National Forum for Health and Wellbeing at Work. But even such well-respected experts must have been taken aback by the synchronicity of their latest book?

Listen to the authors discuss their work below, or read the full interview in issue 3 of IN Magazine.

All of the Workplace Insight podcasts are available on Soundcloud, Spotify, Amazon and iTunes, or simply listen online below.