The Flexibility Paradox: How Scheduling Flexibility Benefits and Hurts Workers

Abstract

The workplace has recently undergone major transformations marked by unprecedented scheduling flexibility. Although greater flexibility is often assumed to be beneficial, our experimental study, conducted with 998 online workers over six weeks, shows that the most vulnerable workers do not benefit and may even be harmed. Time flexibility, which gives workers more time to complete tasks, leads to higher earnings only for those with high self-control. Choice flexibility, which lets workers select among scheduling options, is detrimental, especially for those with low self-control and low socio-economic status. For example, workers in the bottom income quartile earned $1.85 less per hour when given choice flexibility. Our findings should alert companies to the risks of applying scheduling flexibility uniformly to all workers. Our study also suggests that those exposed to the highest levels of scheduling flexibility, such as gig workers, may be the most vulnerable to its adverse effects.