Blue skies spell bad news for employees

There is nothing better than looking up at a clear blue sky on a lazy afternoon.

However one study has claimed that a blue sky may not be all it is cracked up to be.

A report presented to the Royal Economic Society’s annual conference revealed that those who are working in the afternoon are less satisfied with their job on warm and sunny days.

It showed that although weather patterns have no measurable impact on people's overall levels of happiness, it can affect their job satisfaction. However, the effect was only likely to be felt on days with long periods of sunshine.

The study by Dr Franz Buscha examined the relationship between weather and measures of wellbeing using UK data spanning nearly 20 years. 

According to the research, there is also significant evidence of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) whereby individual becomes markedly less happy during winter periods.

Speaking about the research, Dr Buscha, said: "The commonly believed notion that good weather puts people in better moods is not supported by my research. Indeed, the UK population seems relatively resilient at dealing with daily and short-run weather fluctuations.

"Extrapolating these results suggests that the increase in extreme type weather events, such as higher global temperatures or more rain, are unlikely to affect the wellbeing of the UK population directly. But it is possible that extreme weather events will indirectly affect measures of wellbeing via droughts, floods or other personal life events. This as an important avenue for future research."

The report utilised data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which provides access to approximately 150,000 observations of 10,000 UK households over the period 1991 to 2008.