At-home workers take on more hours

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SALT LAKE CITY, June 6 (UPI) -- Employees working from home average 19 more hours a week than in-office workers without additional strain on family life, a study shows.

Research at Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City led by Professor E Jeffrey Hill, studying 24,436 IBM employees across 75 countries, found the line at which employees felt work started to impinge on home life started after 38 hours of work a week, Britain's The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The study, "Finding an Extra Day or Two," published in the Journal of Family Psychology Workers, said those offered flextime, including the ability to work from home, found they could put in up to 57 hours a week without feeling the work-family conflict.

"Telecommuting is really only beneficial for reducing work-life conflict when it is accompanied by flextime," Hill said.

Hill, who once worked for IBM, said, "Flexible work options are associated with higher job satisfaction, boosting morale when it may be suffering."