Study: Working in your free time can be good for you The surprising finding was the subject of an award-winning study by Finnish researchers from the University of Jyväskylä. Workers can feel less stressed if they control their own working patterns, the study found. Image: Henrietta Hassinen / Yle A new study by researchers from the University of Jyväskylä has found that working outside office hours can help reduce exhaustion for some workers. The study by a team at the university's Department of Linguistics and Communication Sciences followed thousands of workers in the IT sector. The researchers found that being available for work-related tasks outside normal office hours was positively correlated to feeling in control of a job.