More than four million people in the UK regularly experience 'precarious scheduling': flexible working with limited hours dictated by management, often with little notice, and to the detriment of employees' home lives and mental health, according to a new study from Cambridge and Oxford sociologists.

The research revealed that ‘precarious employment’ practices are leading to people begging for schedule changes to accommodate for commitments such as childcare, and competing to become management 'favourites' in the hope of additional hours - often hours originally promised to them.

Alex Wood, of Oxford University, embedded himself as a shelf-stacker at a UK supermarket while formerly a researcher at Cambridge’s Department of Sociology, where he experienced first-hand the “toxic” interactions between shop management and workers, witnessing employees “begging" their bosses for additional hours.

"The past decade has seen a fragmenting of working time, as firms have saved costs by increasing shift flexibility through a variety of mechanisms," Wood said. "Those who have challenging schedules imposed on them at short notice are likely to experience worse mental health, typified by anxiety and feeling low.”

Brendan Burchell, of Cambridge's Department of Sociology, said, “Manager-controlled flexible scheduling causes a huge amount of stress and anxiety for workers who are unable to plan their lives socially or financially as a result. The practice is both toxic and endemic in many UK sectors such as care and retail. Government reviews need to look far beyond just zero hours contracts."

The study added that the state of zero hours contracts are the “tip of the iceberg” of precarious employment practices, with analysis of data from the European Working Conditions Survey, undertaken across Europe every five years by EU agency EuroFound, showing that precarious scheduling affects a further 3.9 million people in the UK.

Earlier this year, the Taylor review looked at modern employment practices and made certain recommendations relating to the use of zero-hours contracts, though did not recommend an outright ban.