Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

StressWellbeing

Enabling home working could reduce employee stress

by Personnel Today 18 Feb 2009
by Personnel Today 18 Feb 2009

Workers nationwide will be switching off their emails on Friday 6th February in support of Samaritans’ national fundraising initiative Stress Down Day, with celebrities Ruby Wax, The Hoosiers, Graham Norton and Ainsley Harriott supporting the campaign.

However, business telephony supplier Aastra says that employers should be encouraged to do much more to offer stressed employees work life balance including giving them the option to avoid the commute and work from home.
 
A long daily commute and the associated stresses can add another layer of pressure and anxiety to employees lives. Michael Calvert, General Manager for Aastra in the UK, said:

“Commuting can be highly stressful for employees and employers need to ensure they’re being mindful of their staff’s emotional well-being. Introducing a flexible working policy and ensuring employees have the tools to enable them to work from home should be a high priority for companies across all sectors and regions of the UK.

“Today it’s very easy and cost-effective for businesses to put the technology in place to re-route calls and emails to home offices, giving employees the ability to avoid that stressful commute, improve their green credentials and gain a couple of extra hours of personal time each day.”
 
Currently, just 12 per cent of the UK population works remotely[1], a figure which Aastra believes needs to change rapidly.

By developing working policies to enable more home working, companies who embrace work/life balance could potentially see improved morale, a higher commitment to the company, lower office costs and benefit from stronger retention of their staff.

Offering flexible working can also make a real difference for parents returning to work after having a child or for employees with disabilities.
 
Aastra, which provides telephony systems as well as IP deskphones, softphones and integrated mobility for business, practices what it preaches.

Up to 75 per cent of its UK staff is able to work remotely, one of whom is business development manager, Mike Ballantine, who predominantly works from his home in Somerset and visits the company’s office in Farnborough, Hampshire, once or twice a week.
 
“There’s no question that being able to work remotely has enabled me to manage my time, work commitments with my demanding job, and my personal life more easily,” he said.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“Aastra has provided staff with the technology, such as mobile phones with all the most useful features of a deskphone, to easily work whilst on the move. Meanwhile, home office workers can use deskphones or in my case a softphone to make and receive calls from my laptop.

“I feel very privileged  that I’m able to avoid what could be a very stressful commute, and reduce my carbon footprint, and also get back some hours of personal time which otherwise would have been spent driving to and from work.”

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Disabled leaders should not be underestimated
next post
Childcare costs can be kept to a minimum

You may also like

Six ways to kickstart conversations about team stress...

22 May 2025

Workplace stress: Why it’s time to rebrand resilience

22 May 2025

Employers ‘worryingly’ ignorant about stress risk assessments

20 May 2025

Awareness weeks fuel spike in demand for mental...

19 May 2025

Why HR burnout is a strategic issue

12 May 2025

Preparing for a new era of workforce planning...

8 May 2025

Two-thirds of school leaders suffering mental ill health

6 May 2025

Employers urged to do more to tackle loneliness

1 May 2025

Why employers must do more to support all...

24 Apr 2025

Nearly half did not take even one full...

14 Apr 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+