Although flexible work arrangements (particularly working from home) are widely promoted as policies supporting work-life balance, their effects on workers’ employment and overall wellbeing remain unclear. This presentation examines this with two different angles using large-scale panel data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Understanding Society, 2009–2023). A first paper investigates how working from home affects mental health across gender, caregiving status and occupational class—and how all this varied before and since the pandemic. It uses two-way fixed effects models with an occupational-level WFH measure to address selection bias and measure whether WFH’s mental health effects vary across social positions and the broader institutional context it is embedded in. A second paper examines whether flexible working arrangements support labour market attachment among individuals experiencing health declines. Using a “health shock” design, it analyses employment trajectories around diagnoses of heart attack, stroke, or cancer, and assesses whether access to flexible work helps individuals remain employed following the onset of serious health conditions. Together, these studies show that the effects of work flexibility are complex and context-dependent, with implications for promoting it as a means to support work-life balance and wellbeing.